The Hourglass
by Scarlet Hour
Summary: Set during book 7, Ginny's story. Alone at Hogwarts, Ginny decides to start a defense club with Blaise Zabini but ends up in a complex situation when she comes across Hermione's old time turner. Blaise/Ginny. COMPLETE!
1. The Pilot

**The Hourglass-** Chapter One

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_Turn to page 17. Read the chapter and then answer the questions at the end. No talking._

There was nothing to be done.

Ginny Weasly sat at the back of the classroom, staring at the page before her but not taking in a word of it. It was not that she hated charms class, but there had never been a time that she had needed it less.

_Such is the nature of the tricky Fidelius Charm…_

Fidelius. Ginny's mind stopped on this word and could not go any further. That was it. Fidelius. Fidelity. That was what was missing.

Her brother had left her. Hermione had left. And the boy she had loved since she first saw him when she was ten years old was off fighting Voldemort and might never return.

Ginny's mind flitted idly to the kiss she and Harry had shared that summer, the kiss that she had given him as a gift on his seventeenth birthday to remind him of her affections for him. It made her feel sick, angry and extremely lonely all at the same time. Had she really meant that little to him? That he could just disappear from the scene and hope she was fine?

She told herself over and over that it could be the last kiss he ever got for all she cared, but she knew that wasn't true…in the back of her mind, she knew that it wasn't true at all.

Ginny shut her eyes to block out the painful words on paper. She had never felt more alone in her life.

_He's gone._ She thought. _He's gone and thinking about the kiss you should never have given him won't bring him back._

Ginny repeated this to herself at least five times a day, but it did no good. She felt her heart rate pick up whenever she heard a male's voice similar to his…she always looked twice at boys with green eyes, though they never had quite that precise shade as Harry's.

Neville was the source of greatest comfort to Ginny. Though he had never exactly been the hero of their expeditions, Ginny somehow got the impression that Harry had been most fond of him out of the other boys in their year, aside from Ron obviously. Thus, Ginny felt an intrinsic liking toward the awkward, nervous boy who always seemed to be dealt a hand just a little too unlucky to be of any use in the present situation. Quite like Ginny herself. Moreover, Neville seemed to have similar feelings about the absence of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and did not press Ginny for information about what was wrong. Ginny had a feeling that he understood without her having to speak.

"Miss Weasley?" Ginny's thoughts were interrupted by kindly little Professor Flitwick, who was tapping his wand against the side of his desk to get her attention. "Please focus. This assignment is due at the end of class."

"Yes, of course…" Ginny forced a smile and sat up more straight.

Yet another irritating factor to Ginny was how very dull all of her classes had seemed to become. Last year, learning had been fun. This year, though she didn't know whether it was a result of Harry leaving or not, she felt a certain apathy for education. Without Dumbledore, the Ministry of Magic had taken over responsibilities for assigning the Hogwarts curriculum and Snape, the man whom Harry had sworn had killed Dumbledore, was the new headmaster.

It was unlikely that Voldemort himself cared enough about the Ministry to bother with students' educations very much, but his Death Eaters were doing a fine job restricting the curriculum nonetheless. Attendance was now mandatory for school. Many students were missing this year, because of the Muggle born purgings and the students who remained were either stuck up pure bloods who secretly liked the on goings (Slytherins) or else other students who were too afraid of angering the ministry to do anything against Snape's rules.

The castle seemed so dark all the time. Perhaps that was just Ginny's imagination at work, but she felt that there was something fundamentally changed about the atmosphere of the school. For the most part, all the teachers were the same, and all the same decorations held up, but there was a silence to the castle, a shadow over the feelings. The teachers didn't stop to speak to children in the hallways; they always seemed distant, distracted. Ginny got the impression that teachers like McGonagall and Flitwick had only stayed at Hogwarts in order to exert some level of protection over the students. They certainly had no loyalties to Snape, or if they had in the past, all those loyalties had been quelled by seeing Snape as the puppet of a corrupted Ministry of Magic.

Muggle Studies had been cancelled altogether and the new books for the year had stronger emphases on the superiority of wizards in the world, glorifying that wizards had so many techniques, rather than actually focusing on what these techniques were.

_So very boring…_

**xxxXXXxxx**

The Slug Club still met some Saturday nights. Ginny attended, for no other reason than it took her mind off the situation for a while. Last year she had only attended in hopes of seeing Harry, but so much had changed since then.

The students of the Slug Club were hardly the same. McLaggen seemed to have lost a great deal of his confidence after having failed the Gryffindor Quidditch team so miserably the year before. And the only other people that Ginny knew were Neville and Blaise Zabini, whom she knew vaguely by face but had never bothered to speak with. He had primarily spent time with Malfoy in the past and therefore probably held the same deep-seated contempt for all Muggle borns.

Ginny's main comfort in the club was its noise.

She stayed on the sidelines of the parties generally, speaking to Neville occasionally, but mostly finding peace in the rancid chatter. She could hide there and no one would bother her. Well, no one except Blaise. He never _spoke_ to her exactly, but he would just give her looks that made her feel as though she had stepped out of a trough of cow manure recently.

If he could find her, Slughorn would usually contribute to Ginny's evening by slinging his heavy arm around Ginny and carting her around the room to meet new faces and introduce her to his latest friends.

Not Ginny's idea of a fun evening.

About halfway through dinner on one of these evenings, Ginny was not surprised when Slughorn (giving off a powerful scent of mead) yet again opened the subject of how talented he thought each member of his "Slug Club" was and went around the table naming each of their special abilities. But what did surprise her was what he went on to say.

"Feeling a bit off the weather, m'dear?" he asked in an irritatingly loud voice, directed at Ginny, who had been staring morosely at her plate. Her head shot up.

"I'm fine," she lied automatically.

He winked. "Missing Potter?" Slughorn astutely guessed, while McLaggen snickered and Blaise looked sour. "I'm sure he's fine, wherever he is. Quite a _capable_ boy, as I remember."

Slughorn laughed loudly, as though he had said something very witty and took a long drag out of his goblet.

Ginny didn't know what to say, so she listened to hear how he would proceed. Neville shot a nervous look at her from across the table.

"But listen," Slughorn said more seriously, though some mead was dribbling down his chin, "I don't want to see this long face all the time. If Potter has left, it's for a proper reason, and you can't honor anything more than that. I always say, the mark of a real Sluggie is when he's grown up enough to make his way without the Slug Club!"

Ginny frowned. Slughorn was clearly drunk. He would never had the nerve to say these things to Ginny while sober. Probably he couldn't currently remember what had happened at the end of last year.

"Yep," said Slughorn, rubbing his eyes. "Potter's finally decided to take on responsibility. What surprises me more, to be honest, is that Granger girl and what's-his-name following suit!"

Blaise sniggered out loud and Neville made a sudden motion like he was going to stand up, but had thought the better of disrespecting Slughorn.

"Ron." Said Ginny in a cold voice. "His name is Ron Weasley. And I think I'll go now."

Ginny threw down her napkin and stood up.

"Oh, come now, don't be like that!" Slughorn cried, looking quite alarmed at her response. "I say all this in good humor! I'm sure Potter's off making his fortune in a Borgin and Burkes or something of the—"

"He's fighting Voldemort."

Ginny did not know what made her say it. She had never intended to tell anyone what was causing Harry's absence, but all she knew was that at that moment she could not bear another second of Slughorn's ignorant remarks or Blaise's smirking.

At least Ginny's reply had one effect: it wiped the smirk off Blaise's face, who looked a mixture of shocked and annoyed. Neville went pale, McLaggen looked surprised. Slughorn dropped his goblet.

"_Don't say his name!_" Slughorn reprimanded, looking utterly shocked. "I mean seriously, girl, what do you think you're doing?"

"Maybe it makes her feel brave," said Blaise in a soft voice, looking at Ginny directly for the first time that evening. "Maybe it makes her feel…closer to Potter."

She glared at him and turned her attention back to Slughorn.

"Sorry professor," said Ginny with a controlled effort. "I don't know what got into me."

"I say, girl…" said Slughorn, noticing the mead stains on the front of his robes and starting to wipe at them uselessly, "If you feel so strongly about your Potter's cause, why don't you try to help him?"

Ginny was silenced. She stared at Slughorn. "What do you mean, Professor?"

"Well, we know He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back, don't we?" Slughorn exclaimed, still fiddling with the shirt. "A few self defense classes wouldn't go amiss at this point, would they? I've seen your prowess first hand—why don't you think about how you could help teach other students to defend themselves?"

Ginny opened her mouth and closed it. She looked at Neville and knew they were sharing a thought. What Slughorn had just suggested sounded a great deal like the D.A.

Ginny took a step back.

"I'm tired," she said. "I'll leave now."

"Oh, fine, if you insist!" Slughorn said impatiently, whipping out his wand and pointing it at the front of his shirt. "I can't get this damn thing clean!"

The last thing Ginny saw before slipping out of the room was Slughorn trying to get the red stains out of his white shirt and only succeeding in turning his whole shirt red. Then she stormed down the hallway before anyone could get in another word.

Ginny felt very strange. She didn't know if telling the group about Harry's quest had been a bad idea. It was, after all, evident to everyone in school that Harry was probably off on some sort of personal mission, but perhaps she shouldn't have come out so strongly in favor of Harry. She probably wouldn't get in trouble unless this information got back to Snape, which it probably wouldn't…. As far as that went, the only concern was Blaise Zabini. He seemed to be the only one of the group remotely likely of ratting out Ginny, and the more she thought about it the more uneasy she felt.

Then there was Slughorn's suggestion of starting a defense club. Ginny knew that Slughorn had been drunk…yet his words had made a lot of sense to her. What if these past few months she had just been feeling sorry for herself? Was it time to bite back the sorrow and start trying to help The Cause? …_Should_ she think about restarting a sort of D.A. club? It had been in Ginny's mind to reinstate the club ever since the beginning of the year, but she hadn't taken it seriously until now. The fact of the matter was that most of the students were either openly in favor of the Ministry's regime, or else they were too frightened of it to do anything that Snape might not approve of. Of course, there was no formal ban on clubs—at least, not yet—but there was no doubt that the Ministry wouldn't approve of a Defense club meeting.

Ginny frowned and shook her head. It was all very confusing. If she though about it for long enough, any point of view could make sense….but she just wished that she hadn't lost her temper with Slughorn and told him what Harry was up to. If McLaggen had anything to say about it, the whole school would know by tomorrow. Ginny sighed and was about to mount the staircase when a voice behind her said, "stop."

Ginny spun around, startled, pulling out her wand as she did so, only to find herself face to face with Blaise Zabini.

_"Expelliarmus!"_

Before Ginny could move, Blaise had disarmed her. However, he took no step towards her after this.

"What was _that_ for?" Ginny asked angrily, stalking over to where her wand had landed and picking it up. "Do you make it a sport of ruining people's evenings?"

"I just figured that you would think I was sneaking up on you. I didn't really want to experience one of your hexes first hand, so I considered this safer," said Blaise smoothly. He folded his arms in a satisfied sort of way, watching her move.

Ginny frowned, watching Blaise and knowing that she probably would have done just as he described if he hadn't disarmed her. He seemed much taller than Ginny remembered, though maybe that was because whenever she saw him he was usually slouching, and he was regarding her with his strange slanted eyes that never seemed to commit to any emotion.

"You walk fast," he added blandly. "I practically had to run to catch up to you after you left." He had a way of sounding extremely bored when talking to Ginny, which made her wonder why he was even there.

"What do you want?" Ginny asked, narrowing her eyes and folding her arms. She felt exposed, somehow. Why was he singling her out?

"Cut to the chase?" Blaise raised an eyebrow and seemed mildly amused. Or perhaps he was displeased because his relaxed face dropped into a slight frown.

"You heard what Slughorn said."

Ginny was taken aback. She didn't know what she had been expecting Blaise to bring up, but that certainly hadn't been it.

"What of it?" she asked finally.

Blaise looked at her in disbelief. "You're not seriously telling me that you hadn't considered starting a club like that before Slughorn mentioned it, are you?" he demanded incredulously.

"Why _would_ I?" Ginny lied, trying to keep her side of the conversation short.

"You're supposedly the most talented witch in your year_, aren't you_?" Blaise drawled in his maddening way. "You really never considered that we can't count on teachers? You never thought of taking things into your own hands?"

"…What are you getting at?" Ginny asked, staring at him.

Blaise sighed angrily. "I can't tell if you're stupid, or you're just being difficult," he said coldly. "But I'll bank on the latter since I've seen first hand what you can do. _Obviously_, I'm asking you if you want to start a defense club with me."

He had finally come out and said it. Ginny didn't know what to say. She felt utterly wrong footed. Not only did the proposition of teaming up seem so utterly _reasonable_ that she couldn't accept it was coming from Blaise Zabini, but she thought that he was like all the other Slytherins. Wasn't he pleased that Voldemort was back?

"I thought you promoted Voldemort," she said before she could stop herself.

Blaise stared at her, and she stared at him back fiercely, unable to read his face. He seemed to be considering something.

"That's neither here nor there." He said finally. "All I know is that I don't want some disgusting werewolf or another on _my ass_ if this school gets invaded."

He was referring to Fenrir Greyback, Ginny was sure of it. Maybe Zabini didn't like all of those that Voldemort had enlisted for support. Maybe he just wanted to know how to protect himself from a situation like that. But why would he need Ginny for that…?

"…Do you know other people who would be interested in learning self defense?" Ginny asked slowly, realizing why Blaise was telling this to her.

Blaise seemed a bit less angry. "Now you're getting it."

A pause.

"But when? Where?" Ginny asked. "How many people do you know?"

"Enough." Said Blaise blandly. "We would need a fairly large room."

The Room of Requirement was the first thought that flashed through Ginny's mind. She somehow felt reluctant to use it, however, as though it were Harry's place, and thus sacred. Ginny shook her head. She couldn't keep thinking like that, it was counter-productive…

"I know a place." She said. "It's—"

"Shh." He said. "Write it down. Someone might be listening."

"Clubs aren't banned." Ginny pointed out.

Blaise looked at her like she was stupid. "Well, I wouldn't count on them _staying_ that way." he said. "It's only a matter of time before the ministry starts reinstating some of its rules from the Umbridge regime."

Ginny shivered, remembering. She wondered if Blaise knew this because of personal connections to the Ministry or if he was just speculating. More importantly, Ginny didn't know whether or not to even trust Blaise. He seemed sincere enough about wanting to protect his own skin, but he was, after all, a Slytherin…

"Why are you doing this?" Ginny asked, looking directly at Blaise. "I don't believe that you want to help other people and if you only wanted to help yourself, then you wouldn't need me. What's you alter-plan?" she demanded.

Instead of denying that he had an alter-plan, as Ginny expected him to, Blaise laughed softly. He took a step forward.

"Me and you, Ginny," he said. "We're different. Slughorn selected you. Did you know, Slughorn was the first man to recognize You-Know-Who's talents?"

"Atrocities, you mean." Ginny corrected, feeling unnerved.

"Whatever." Blaise gazed at her intently. "If we don't lead, who will?"

Ginny didn't reply. She still didn't trust him, but that answer had certainly been arrogant enough to ensure that Blaise was still the same person. She gritted her teeth.

"And why do you think you're better than everyone else?" she challenged.

"Because I am." He said it with no inflection of pride or smugness in his voice: just a simple blandness that was incredibly infuriating. It was as if he were merely stating a fact and nothing else.

"I'm better than the others," he repeated. "And so are you. Like your Potter."

Ginny felt her face grow hot as Blaise continued to study her.

"What do you say?" he finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Next Thursday. Nine o'clock." She choked out through the strange slew of emotions coursing through her. "Bring whoever you want." At that point, Ginny only wanted to get as far away from Blaise as possible.

Blaise smiled in cruelly satisfied way and stepped back again. "Now you're seeing sense. The room?"

"I'll send an owl." Ginny took another step back.

"Fair enough."

They looked at eachother a moment longer.

"I believe you were in the middle of storming off." Blaise supplied sarcastically, pointing up the staircase. "You were making a lovely little exit fueled by the anger that someone had insulted your boys…before I hailed you…"

Ginny raised her hand to slap Blaise, but thought the better of it at the last moment. He wasn't worth it. She simply lowered her hand, turned, and stomped up the staircase.

Blaise stared after her for a long moment smirking to himself, before parting as well.

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	2. Meeting After Dark

**The Hourglass: Chapter 2**

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Ginny had no problem sending the owl with the location and scoping out the Room of Requirement, but she felt a definite curtain of awkwardness drop over her when she approached Neville and Luna just a week later to tell them about the plan.

Luna did not seem at all surprised by Ginny's proposition; it was a wonder that Luna had not aced Divination in the way she seemed to know everything before it happened.

"So it's pretty much like the D.A.," Ginny concluded, hoping that the reference to Harry would incite them more than her awkward speech had. Neville looked at Luna who smiled and asked, "You thought of all this yourself?"

"Well…no." Ginny admitted, bracing herself for the difficult part. "Actually…it was partially Zabini's idea." She said in a rush, scrunching up her eyes in anticipation of their reactions. They did not disappoint.

"_Zabini?_ _Blaise_ Zabini?" Neville asked incredulously, while even Luna looked mildly surprised. "How can you trust him? He's…he's one of Malfoy's old friends! He's all for—for You-Know-Who!" he blustered, looking surprised at his own daring. However, his face shone with a sort of determination that was unlike anything Ginny had ever seen before.

"It's not like you think…" Ginny explained, shifting uncomfortably, although she had been expecting this. "I think that he really wants to…help people." The fact that Ginny herself did not believe these words even as she spoke them was quite evident, for they did not roll off her tongue smoothly. Luna cleared her throat.

"I trust your judgment, Ginny." She said placidly. "You were my first friend and I know that you wouldn't involve us in anything dangerous. If you think Zabini is trustworthy then that's good enough for me. When do meetings start?"

"This Thursday at nine o'clock," said Ginny, grateful for Luna's acceptance. "It's in the same place, the Room of Requirement."

Neville, who had still looked upset up until now looked Ginny sharply in the face, as if about to protest anew about using Harry's old classroom. But Ginny looked at him with a kind of severe desperation and he held his tongue.

"Is this okay with you too, Neville?" Ginny asked.

He looked at his feet. "…yes." But his word had a hollow and distant sound to it, like a nickel being dropped into an empty cup. He still looked unhappy and would not look Ginny in the eye.

"…Good then," said Ginny, forcing herself to tear her eyes from his pitiful stance and trying to imbue in her voice a briskness reminiscent of McGonagall's. "Lessons start at nine o'clock this Thursday. So far there's no rule against after hours for us sixth years so just come after dinner. Spread the word."

"Right," said Luna calmly, while Neville only nodded.

"Good." Ginny repeated. When had it become so awkward to speak to her two best friends? She took a step back. "I'm going to tell others then…" and left through the portrait hole.

Ginny inwardly cringed as she walked away from her two friends. It had gone worse than she had expected, despite Luna's acceptance. And the others in Gryffindor were sure to be more openly skeptical that those two.

Ginny hadn't realized that it took so much charisma to convince people of a thing like starting a defense club. She would have to work on her persuasion tactics and speech-giving abilities before recruiting old members to this strange new D.A.

_It's all __**his**__ fault._ She thought angrily as Blaise's arrogant face came swimming into her thoughts. _If he hadn't created such a horrible reputation for himself these past five years then people would join his club much more willingly…and I wouldn't be an outcast for supporting him._

**xxxXXXxxx**

Thursday came so quickly that week that Ginny wondered if there were seriously such a thing as folding time. It could be possible for wizards, right? Perhaps there was a way to speed up time so that one could get to a certain desired moment more quickly…but no teacher had ever mentioned it before.

Ginny approached the Room of Requirement with worms of dread curling in her stomach as if to spite the delicious dinner she had eaten an hour before. She figured that she ought to show up a little early to set up the room for the class, although she had little idea of what to expect as far as turnout went. So many of the old D.A. members had either graduated or dropped out of Hogwarts, and Ginny knew that most likely their places would be taken by whomever Blaise brought along. Blaise, of course, had not bothered to inform Ginny how many people he had invited, nor who they were, which irritated her to no end, but there was nothing to do about it now.

Ginny turned the final corner and stood before the empty stretch of wall space.

_I need a place to practice magic…somewhere I can't be found…_ she thought, pacing back and forth before the wall. A knob materialized. Ginny wrenched it open and once again entered the Room of Requirement.

The room was quite as she remembered it from the days that the D.A. used to meet there: books on Defense Against the Dark Arts lined the walls, cushions and foldaway tables were stacked in a corner and the room was lit by the almost sultry glow of bracketed torches on the walls. But to Ginny's surprise, there was already someone in the room.

Blaise glanced up when he heard the door open and frowned slightly upon seeing Ginny.

"You're late," he said, sharply shutting the book that he had been idly flipping through and replacing it on the bookshelf. "You need to come earlier to set up. I assumed that since you agreed to start this club with me, you'd be taking a little responsibility as a teacher."

Ginny saw red. What a great start they were off to!

"I'm here to do nothing less," she managed to say in a deathly calm voice of controlled anger. "I thought that you might be helpful enough to send me a list of the participants you were recruiting, as I did for you!"

"That's irrelevant." He said. "Whether you're teaching twenty people or two, you have to be prepared."

"Did you have anything in mind for today?" Ginny cut him off, feeling that if they continued this line of conversation, she might lose her temper and hex him, which would be counter productive. "Any spells you wanted to start off with?"

Blaise smiled oddly. "I thought we'd give them a warm welcome," he said airily, strutting lazily over to where the cushions were stacked. "Then make sure that they can do basic spells such as Stunning. I'm open to whatever after that. Do you have a preference?"

"Yes," said Ginny, making up her mind on the spot. "I think we should review Protego."

"The Shield Charm?" Blaise raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. The Shield Charm that keeps _unwanted_ people away. I think that's quite useful, don't you?" Ginny cocked an eyebrow innocently, though she felt inward satisfaction at the expression on Blaise's face: he had not missed the gibe, she was sure of it. But for whatever reason, he played along,

"I guess that's a good idea," he said, relaxing his face. "Even though it's an elementary spell; I could do it by second year. Then again, you never know; some people's skulls are so thick I'm surprised they can tell one end of a wand from the other."

Before Ginny could respond, the door opened and Neville and Luna entered. "I couldn't get in the first time, I don't know what's wrong with this room—" Neville was saying, until he caught sight of Blaise and stopped short.

Blaise grinned knowingly at Ginny as if to say, "See what I mean?", which made Ginny blush angrily. Turning to her friends, she said, "Take a seat anywhere. We'll have a talk before we start anything."

With a wave of her wand, Ginny made the tables folded in the corners fly up and float down into place on the floor, with four chairs at each table. Neville and Luna took seats, and Blaise, looking mildly impressed by this bit of magic, turned his back on the newcomers and busied himself with the bookshelf again.

Over the next quarter hour, people tentatively filed in. Following Neville and Luna, the only people from the old D.A. to show up were Lavender, Zacharias Smith, and the three from Ravenclaw: Anthony Goldstein, Terry Boot, and Ginny's ex-boyfriend Michael Corner. Ginny frowned. So much had changed. While some of the members of the former D.A. had left the school due to graduation, many, such as the Patil twins, Hannah Abbott, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and the Creevy brothers, had dropped out of Hogwarts to avoid Muggle born persecution or because their parents considered it safer.

In the place of these people, however, were a number of tentative underclassmen from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw, and of course, a handful of about seven Slytherins that Ginny presumed Blaise had invited.

The only Slytherin that Ginny half-recognized was a thin, pale boy whom Ginny knew to be Theodore Nott. The son of a known Death Eater.

Ginny shuddered involuntarily as he took his seat; why on earth was he here if his father was working for Voldemort? Was there a chance that his father was with Voldemort out of fear and that he was secretly against the Dark Lord's ways? Or was Theodore simply not like his father?

Ginny glanced at Blaise, who seemed to be watching for her reaction. When she caught his eye, he smiled in a nasty, amused way. Perhaps he was hoping she was disconcerted by his friends. Refusing to grant him that satisfaction, Ginny tore her gaze from his eyes and boldly stepped forward.

Though she had little experience with public speaking, everyone seemed to have been waiting for her to begin; for once she did so, the vague chatter in the room died down and Ginny found herself nervous about all the eyes upon her.

Scanning the silent room, she saw that, as expected, the students were completely segregated. The Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs were crowded together on the side nearer to the door, while the Slytherins had formed an isolated knot near the fireplace. They all watched her with the same blank expression.

Ginny cleared her throat.

"Welcome," she said, focusing on Luna and Neville. "To the first meeting of this year's defense club. Bearing in mind the recent turn of events in the Ministry in regards to education, Zabini and I thought that it would be a good idea if—"

"It's a defense club, exactly what it sounds like." Blaise interrupted in a bored voice. "We're students who have hands-on experience with the Dark Arts and we're going to teach you how to defend yourself." Blaise shortened Ginny's speech to those words.

"Yes, thank you, Zabini," said Ginny tightly, irritated by his interruption. "As I was _saying_, we're going to start by reviewing basic defense spells—"

"Starting with Stunning," Blaise added, it seemed for no other reason than to bother Ginny by interrupting again.

"_Yes_," said Ginny. "_Thank you_ for that addition, Zabini."

There were titters throughout the class; it was fairly obvious to the students that there was tension between Blaise and Ginny, and a spirit of competition.

"Anyhow," Ginny continued, "We intend to run this defense club for the entire year. Initially, we're going to be reviewing some of the basic defense spells that can buy you time if you're dealing with dark witches and wizards. However, as the year progresses, I want to introduce more advanced magic as well as a study of silent spells."

Ginny noticed that a few of the Slytherins had started to whisper among themselves, which bothered her. However, before she could do anything about it, Zabini snapped his fingers at them and they fell silent immediately.

"Show some respect to your betters," he said coldly to the Slytherins who had been talking. They looked sour at being called out, but didn't seem to dare to talk back.

Zabini looked around and took a step forward so that he was now standing next to Ginny. "I want to begin by setting down some ground rules," he announced, looking around. "Firstly, everyone here will treat the teachers, Ginny and me, with respect." He paused to look at the Slytherins who had been talking. "Secondly," he continued, "you will obey all decisions made by either Ginny or myself in terms of structure of the class or scheduling. And thirdly—" he seemed to glance for a millisecond at Nott, "_thirdly_, word that this club exists cannot leave this room."

"Why? We aren't doing anything wrong!" blurted out a Hufflepuff third year nervously.

"Rule four," Blaise said, turning to the boy, "don't talk out of turn."

The boy stared back at Blaise but broke under his gaze and looked away. Blaise relaxed.

"I know we aren't doing anything wrong." He said idly, examining the cuff of his perfect robes. "Not yet, anyway. But still, how do you think a Ministry run by Umbridge would feel about students of Hogwarts starting a defense club? I trust many of you remember Umbridge's year as a teacher at Hogwarts?"

Silence.

Blaise stepped back, looking satisfied with himself. "That's all. We can start."

Ginny, who had felt rather forgotten up until this point, found herself back in the spotlight. _Why can't I demand attention like that?_ she wondered ruefully. Though she hated to admit it, she probably had a thing or two to learn from Blaise as far as running the class was concerned.

"So…break into pairs," she announced now that the class was quiet again. "Take a cushion from the corner and we'll first practice Stunning. If you all do well, we can move on to the Shield Charm today."

There was a frozen pause, then everyone began to slowly move, getting partners and collecting cushions. Ginny moved the tables back to the corner to create more room, and watched in mild astonishment as people obeyed her instructions and began Stunning.

"Now what?" she murmured.

"Patrol and make sure they're doing it right," Blaise replied, making Ginny jump; she hadn't realized she had said that aloud.

Blaise seemed to have his eye on Neville and Luna; he began to head over the area where they were working, and circled the groups in that area.

Reluctantly, Ginny turned to the side of the room that Blaise had left unpatrolled: mostly the Slytherins.

Gathering her courage, Ginny stepped towards the group and began monitoring their progress. Fortunately, most of the Slytherins seemed proficient in Stunning, perhaps because they were older and more experienced, so she was able to mostly avoid speaking to them, save for a few pointers. She focused rather, on a group of younger Ravenclaws in the same area.

All was going relatively well for about half an hour, until they had moved on to Shield Charms and Ginny heard a mild commotion coming from the other side of the room. Looking over, she saw Blaise looming over Luna and Neville, saying something that she couldn't hear. Neville looked upset. Ginny made a quick beeline for the trio.

"What's going on here?" she asked immediately upon arriving, looking to Blaise, who was sure to be the cause of the problem.

"Nothing." said Blaise. "I was just telling Longbottom how to flick his wand properly so as to perform the spell correctly." He turned to Neville, "You're supposed to hold it delicately, Longbottom: it's a wand, not a spear."

Blaise imitated what Neville had been doing with his own wand, waving his arms comically. The Slytherins on the other side of the room laughed a bit, and Neville blushed angrily.

So that's how it was. Blaise was embarrassing Neville in front of the whole group.

"There's no need for that, Zabini," said Ginny warningly. "Just say what's wrong and move on."

"I am. I'm just saying he shouldn't hold his wand like a buffoon—"

"He's _not_ a buffoon!"

"Look, I'm handling this, Ginny." exclaimed Blaise. "Go help the others—"

"Don't tell her what to do!" Neville shouted.

Blaise rounded on Neville. "And you, stay quiet until I give you more instructions!"

"Neville, come with me," said Ginny, taking his arm. "Practice in my zone."

She led Neville and Luna over to her side of the room without looking at Blaise, who was watching them angrily. The room had temporarily gone quiet.

"It's like this…" Ginny explained, showing Neville how to hold his wand properly.

As Ginny began to teach, the rest of the group began to move and talk again, leaving Blaise alone on the other side of the room. He shrugged and moved on.

"I'm sorry about that, Neville," said Ginny softly. "He shouldn't have done that, it was out of order—"

Neville nodded without even looking at her. He was concentrating on his next spell. Luna did not make eye contact with her either.

"Well, I think you're doing fine now, in any case," said Ginny helplessly, wandering away. Waves of resentment towards Blaise swept over her; she would have to talk to him.

When the class ended an hour later, most people seemed quite pleased with the progress they had made, despite the tension of the instruction. They made plans to meet the following Tuesday at the same time, and then parted for the night.

"Should we wait for you, Ginny?" Luna asked, as everyone began leaving. She stood by the door with Neville.

"No, it's fine; I'm going to clean up. I'll see you later," said Ginny.

Luna nodded and she and Neville were the last to leave the room, leaving Ginny and Blaise behind to clear up.

Blaise rearranged all the cushions quickly without speaking to Ginny, and Ginny replaced the books that had fallen off the shelves when they had been hit by badly aimed spells.

Finally, when all that was left was to put out the torches, Ginny felt she could be silent no longer.

"So why did you do that?" she asked carefully, not letting on how upset it had made her.

Blaise took his time in responding, first extinguishing three torches. "Do what?" he finally asked blandly.

"Treat Neville that way."

"I was teaching him."

"You know what I'm talking about! Don't pretend!" Ginny snapped in frustration, tossing her hair over her shoulder and turning to face Blaise for the first time. Her brown eyes were fiery in frustration. "He's already insecure and you exploited that! You treat him like he's an idiot and he's _not!_"

"Is that different from how you treat my friends?" Blaise asked, his eyes flashing. "You avoided them the entire evening like they're poison! Wouldn't hardly look at them!"

"It's completely different!" Ginny cried, stung by this comment. "I had no bad intentions for your friends! You did that to Neville—you did it…" Ginny cast about for the right words, "You did it specifically to hurt him! Because he's one of my best friends!"

"That's ridiculous." Blaise's tone was cold.

"It's true! You were mean to him and a lousy teacher to boot!"

"Oh yes, of course I was!" Blaise said, his voice starting to rise with anger and some other emotion that Ginny couldn't name. "Of course! Because nothing I do is _ever _right, as least as far as you're concerned!"

"Well, if you're talking about how you run the class, then you're damn right!" retorted Ginny. "Admit that you treated him badly! Admit it!"

"So Longbottom's the new Potter, is it?" Blaise asked scathingly.

"I—what?" Ginny was thrown by this comment. "What are you talking about? Don't change the subject!"

"I haven't got time for this," said Blaise, pointing his wand at the second to last torch and extinguishing it. "I'm leaving."

The extinguishing of the torch left Ginny and Blaise alone in a strange semi-darkness. Blaise looked really quite sinister, with the last flame throwing dancing shadows across his face. Even though he said he was going to leave, he stood there looking at Ginny a moment longer.

Ginny drew a shuddering breath. "Forget it. We need a new plan; things can't run like they did today. We'll never be able to handle this class if you—if _we_ keep making things difficult for eachother." Said Ginny in as controlled a voice as she could manage. "From now on, let's plan the lessons beforehand so that we don't end up—interrupting eachother or anything."

"Fine by me." His eyes blazed into hers before he turned and left the room, leaving Ginny alone.

The door snapped shut behind him. She dropped her face into her hands, wondering how she was going to face Neville and Luna now, now that Zabini had behaved exactly as she had tried to convince them he wouldn't. Why did Blaise have to make everything so _damn_ difficult?

Ginny spent another ten minutes alone in the room, unable to get the image of Blaise's expression before he had left out of her head. Finally, she extinguished the last torch with a jab of her own wand, and left the Room of Requirement.

* * *


	3. Snape's Relic

**The Hourglass, Chapter 3**

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"Yeah, don't mention it," Neville mumbled, focusing on his potatoes and not looking Ginny in the eye. "I've got the spell down now. It's fine."

"But that's not the point!" Ginny said, feeling rather desperate. "I don't want you to think—I don't want—"

"We know it's not your fault, Ginny." Said Luna sagely. "You didn't know that Zabini would do that."

Despite her calm words, Ginny thought that she sensed a hair of animosity even in Luna. The last few weeks had not gone smoothly as planned. Although now she and Blaise kept a regular correspondence in which they planned out the lessons so that there were no embarrassing mistakes, the tension throughout the club was undeniable. No one trusted anyone else. The Slytherins separated themselves from the other three houses (not that Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw made any efforts to be friends), Zabini avoided the Gryffindors ever since the first lesson, Ginny avoided Slytherins, Neville avoided everyone but Luna, and of course, to say that the tensions between Blaise and Ginny had relaxed would be utterly false.

But Ginny's main fear was that no one was working together to make the club a success. Despite the fact that everyone's magic was improving, if they all fought only for themselves then they would never accomplish anything.

These things were all on Ginny's mind, but the problem that most tested her resolve, at least in terms of running the club, came in the form of a piece of parchment nailed to the announcement board in the Gryffindor common room the following week.

It was the education decree of Umbridge's time. No club could exist without express permission.

So now it really was illegal. Thus far, their group would only have been frowned upon, but now it was serious. If Ginny wanted to continue the club, it would mean that it would have to be a well kept secret. Of course, this was fine with Ginny, but she didn't feel the same confidence radiating from other club members.

Ginny knew also, that now that the corrupt Ministry was exerting control over Hogwarts, it would only be a matter of time before all the old rules came back—the harsher punishments, mail being searched…

It wouldn't be safe to communicate with Blaise by letter anymore. She arranged a meeting with him the following week on the grounds by the lake, where she felt that they wouldn't be overheard.

It was mid-Decemeber, but unusually warm for the time—snow had not yet begun to fall at Hogwarts. A solid frost covered the grounds so that with each step Ginny took, a chorus of frozen, crackling grass followed. She shivered, having forgotten to bring her cloak.

"Saw the Ministry's Christmas gift to Hogwarts?" she asked once they were alone.

"What's the problem?" Blaise asked, in his normal unconcerned way as the two of them slowly walked around the perimeter of the lake. "You're not getting cold feet, are you?"

"Of course not!" Ginny snapped, rather offended. "I'm making sure that _you're_ ready to go through with this."

"I don't start things that I can't finish." Blaise said flatly, looking down at her. "I said that I wanted to start this club, now I'm not going to suddenly change my mind because they're re-implementing all the old rules from Umbridge's time."

"Well, what about—" Ginny cut herself off. She had been making a conscious effort ever since the first defense club meeting to not refer to Blaise's Slytherin friends as if they were some sort of alien group, different from the rest of the club. Blaise, however, seemed to know what she had been about to say.

"They're just as ready as any of your friends," he replied coldly. "I'd keep an eye on some of the Ravenclaws if you're concerned that someone's going to cop out and tell a teacher."

"I didn't mean—"

"Yes, you did."

They walked in silence for a few moments. Ginny hated how he always seemed to know what she was thinking.

"Nothing's going to work if we don't work together," Blaise said suddenly. "You know that, don't you?"

"That's what I've been thinking." Ginny muttered, staring at her feet. "I want the club members to start integrating."

"How can we force that on them?" he asked coolly.

"We can't," she spoke with a twinge of annoyance. "But we can set a good example, for one thing."

"Ah! Are you asking to be my friend? I'm honored." Blaise said, touching his chest and mock-bowing.

"Let's call a truce," she said, unwilling to get entangled in his word games. "You don't like my company any more than I like yours."

"Don't I?" Blaise's eyes flashed. "You seem to have a very low opinion of me, Ginny. But I won't let you soothe your conscience by telling yourself that that opinion is reciprocal."

Ginny blushed, not daring to look him in the eyes. He did not press the point, however.

"If we seem amiable, the others might be encouraged to work together," Ginny said finally.

"I agree," he said airily. "Are you cold?"

"What?"

Blaise was already conjuring a scarf out of thin air. Ginny watched in fascination as the indigo material flowed from the tip of his wand like ink. He flicked his wand away and handed it to her.

"...thanks," she said awkwardly, taking it and winding it around her neck. She laughed nervously. "I haven't seen anyone conjure that much fabric from thin air since my older brother tried to take the short way out of making the bed a few years ago…"

Blaise looked like he would almost smile. He cleared his throat.

"Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?"

"The next lessons," Ginny said with a controlled effort.

"Of course," Blaise traced his mouth with a finger as he smiled. "They've made decent progress with silent spells, haven't they?"

"They have," she conceded. "But it's a fairly normal standard of teaching. I'd like to give them some sorts of magic that they can't learn in class."

"Like what?" Blaise raised an eyebrow.

Ginny swallowed, knowing how strange it was going to sound. "Occlumency."

"Occlumency?" Blaise stopped walking.

"The art of protecting one's memories and feelings from another person. Against the magic of Legilimency."

"How did you know about that?" he asked, frowning.

"Why so surprised?" she challenged, not wanting to answer.

He seemed to recognize her rejection and resumed walking. "I've never tried that before," he admitted. "But it's likely worth a shot."

"Of course it is. We'll finish silent spells first though, just to develop the focus of their minds."

Ginny trailed off and idly fingered the scarf. Blaise kicked a clump of frosted dirt into the pond where it floated for a moment before disappearing into the dark depths below.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

When Ginny came back through the portrait hole that evening, she was almost immediately mobbed by Neville, whose anxious face was shining, as if with a secret. Wordlessly, he grabbed her arm and dragged her over to a remote area of the common room where Luna was waiting.

"What's going on?" Ginny asked, confused by their behavior. In light of some new information they had uncovered, they seemed to have forgotten that they were supposed to be upset with Ginny.

"Is this about the Educational Decree?" she asked once they had seated themselves.

"No. Well, sort of, but not really." Neville said. He seemed fidgety and nervous. Luna put a restraining hand upon his arm.

"Well, what is it?" Ginny asked, looking back and forth between them.

"I had an accident in Charms today," Neville said.

"Oh, great."

"Not serious like that!" Neville exclaimed, corners of his mouth twitching. "Just a badly aimed spell. But the girl had rabbit ears, so Professor Flitwick had to send me to Snape's office.

"No!" Ginny sat up more straight. "They don't do that! You can't get into such serious trouble for a little problem in class!"

"That's what I thought." said Neville. "The Ministry rules are coming down, though. They want to weed out the lousy wizards."

"Don't say that." Ginny frowned nervously. "What happened?"

"Well, nothing really," said Neville. "Flitwick escorted me up, but Snape wasn't there. I entered the office and it was empty. He's gone away somewhere."

"Oh," Ginny leaned back in punctured anticipation. "He's been leaving the school a lot lately, hasn't he? Probably helping You-Know-Who directly."

"That's what I thought," Neville continued. "And since he wasn't there, I avoided that trouble, but I saw something in the office that I want to talk about."

"What? What'd you see?" Ginny asked, interested again.

Neville regarded Ginny. "Do you know where Harry is?" he asked.

"Harry?" Ginny was surprised by this strange question. "I mean…not exactly. I know he's fighting Him…wherever he is. But I don't know geographically where he is right now, no."

"I saw Gryffindor's sword in Snape's office." Neville said.

There was silence for a moment.

"That's always there, I told him," Luna said.

"But it occurred to me…" Neville said slowly. "That…Harry came across that sword in a special way."

"He got it the night he saved me from the Chamber of Secrets," Ginny said, realizing where Neville was headed. "Dumbledore had willed it to Harry. We found out at Harry's seventeenth birthday party this summer!"

"So it might be special to Harry…"

"Might be important…"

"And if Snape's keeping it even though Dumbledore willed it away…"

"Then that _proves _that there's something significant about it!" Ginny finished breathlessly. "Brilliant, Neville!"

The three sat together with their heads bowed for a moment, soaking in all this new information.

"So when do we take it?" Luna suddenly asked, in a very matter-of-fact way.

They looked at her.

"When do we take the sword?"

Ginny looked into the fireplace. "We need to get it back for Harry; that's certain. But if we're going to get it from the Headmaster's office, we'll need the help of several skilled students. I think I should bring this up at the next defense club meeting…"

"No!"

Neville's tone more than his words, shocked Ginny. She looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"No, you can't tell all the others!" Neville repeated in his surprised, appalled voice. "How can you even suggest that? This is a private mission for Harry! We can't go—we can't go around inviting half the school to it!"

"For God's sake Neville, how can we do this alone? We need the help of students who are trained in Defense Against the Dark Arts! There's bound to be some sort of protective charm around that sword and besides, sneaking around a Ministry-controlled school is no small feat, either!"

"Ginny, half of them are Slytherins!" Neville shot back. "Their fathers are Death Eaters! I'm not asking them for help in this!"

"Neville—" Ginny did not know how to address Neville's prejudice. She turned to Luna. "What do you say?" she asked.

"I think Neville's right," Luna said, surprising Ginny. "This mission is for Harry. It's best if we don't involve others in it. I'm sure that sneaking around at night isn't what they bargained for, even if they did agree to join an illegal club."

"But—" Ginny cast her mind about for more objections. She wasn't sure what was wrong. She saw their points, yet Ginny couldn't help but feel that there was something inherently wrong about doing this alone, especially after having pledged to be open with Blaise and work with him.

"Couldn't I at least tell Blaise?" she asked.

"Do what you want," said Neville suddenly. "But if he's coming along, then I'm not."

Ginny stared at him. "Neville?"

"If the others from the club are in on this, then I'm not coming," repeated Neville.

Ginny looked at him helplessly. His face was set. She knew she couldn't choose the club over Neville, especially not when this whole thing had been his original idea and Neville had been so close to Harry.

"…fine." She said finally. "I won't tell. We'll do it alone."

Ginny knew this was the wrong decision even as she said these words, but there was no arguing with Neville's long face.

"Good. When do we do it then?" Neville was now speaking to Luna, who replied softly, as Ginny buried her face in her hands.

"I think it should be as soon as possible," said Luna. "We don't know when Snape will be back."

"I agree," said Neville. "What do you think, Ginny?"

"You guys are right…" she mumbled, looking up. "But…" she cleared her throat in an effort to rid her voice of its morose quality. "But we'll need to carefully plan each step. None of us has an invisibility cloak or anything…so we need to…take secret passages. We'll need the help of the portraits…"

"The portraits?" Neville frowned.

"Preferably one on each floor. To alert us if a teacher is up, you know."

"That's a good idea," a ghost of a smile crossed Neville's face. "I also have Instant Blackness powder. That might come in handy."

"Yes, any of Fred and George's products that you have would definitely be useful," Ginny agreed, smiling as she thought of her brothers. We'll go tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow?" Even Luna looked mildly surprised.

"It's like you said; the sooner the better," said Ginny. "And that's the soonest we can manage without sacrificing planning."

Neville did not look particularly convinced, but he trusted Ginny, as did Luna.

"Alright then. Tomorrow."

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

The next day was terrible for Ginny. She felt jumpy the entire day thinking about what was to come in the evening.

When night fell, Ginny couldn't relax. Luna sat on the bed next to hers reading some Quibbler article about Furry-Nosed Poshumes (whatever those were) seemingly unconcerned about what they had to do in a few short hours.

Ginny lay on her back staring at the ceiling. She thought she knew was guilt felt like now. Really felt like—the physical touch of guilt. It was the same feeling as Blaise's scarf between her fingers. This was wrong. The defense club had been started to protect students against the dark arts, but more importantly, it was to create a base of friendship and trust at Hogwarts, where the future witches and wizards of the world were being educated. The others ought to know...

Ginny rolled over.

_It's none of his business._ She told herself. _…But I hope he doesn't find out. _

**XxX**_  
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The trip through the dark school up to the Headmaster's tower went relatively smoothly, to Ginny's surprise. Perhaps because they had gotten so much practice with sneaking around in the last couple of years, but it was surprisingly easy to navigate through the dark school. Ginny felt that something had to go wrong at every turn, that teachers must be patrolling, watching, waiting for them.

But there was no one. The halls were silent, the only noise being the soft snuffling of the portraits as they turned in their sleep. A few of the portraits were awake, aware of the students' mission, intending to help. Ginny, Luna, and Neville made their way to Snape's office one by one, leaving one person behind to patrol the hallways that they passed through.

They reached the statue of the gargoyle, which looked at them expectantly.

"Er—"

Ginny looked at Neville.

"Fawnskin," he said firmly.

Ginny frowned, slightly surprised by Snape's choice of password. They stepped onto the landing and ascended the stone steps to the office.

Ginny had been in the office on a few occasions, but not since Dumbledore's death. There were no funny-looking instruments on the walls, no crimson phoenix in the corner; the office was rather bare, with the shelves lined with jars of slimy looking contents: probably Snape's idea of pleasant decorations.

Ginny made a face at all this, but turned her attention to the desk. It was neatly organized with several bottles of ink and parchment waiting on the corner. And behind the desk was—

"There!" Neville whispered, pointing.

Behind the desk in a glass case on the wall hung the sword of Gryffindor, somehow still glittering despite the darkness of the room.

Neville took a step forward, but Ginny put a hand on his arm. "Cover the portraits," she whispered.

Luna nodded, realizing where Ginny was going with this, and tiptoed over to the sleeping portraits. Conjuring bags from her wand, she quickly covered the frames so that any ex-headmaster to wake up during their stay would see nothing.

Ginny approached the case, unsure of whether or not it was magically guarded.

"First things first," Luna said softly. She reached out and with her two hands attempted to lift the cover off the sword. Nothing happened.

Ginny pulled out her wand and tapped it against the sides of the casing next, attempting to coax it off the sword, but it was to no avail.

"Permanent Sticking Charm," Ginny realized, whispering. "We won't be able to get the case off…"

"What do we do?" Neville asked.

Ginny frowned. "We can't pull the glass off…"

She paused for a moment, knowing how risky her suggestion was going to sound.

"…but maybe we could go through it."

"_Through_ it?" Luna looked skeptical. "With a charm to shatter it? That will make too much noise!"

"Then we'll have to move quickly afterward, won't we?" Ginny was trying to keep her voice calm. "I know it's not ideal, but…I think that's our best chance."

Neville and Luna looked at eachother. "Isn't there anything you could cast that would keep people from hearing?" Neville asked desperately. "I don't think it's a good idea."

"Well, there's…" Ginny trailed off as she remembered a spell she had seen Harry perform on more than one occasion, not to mention her own brother Ron.

"I've heard of one…" she said. "It's supposed to stop any eavesdroppers from overhearing. It might work."

"Give it a try!" Neville urged.

"Okay…" Ginny closed her eyes and raised her wand, pointing it at nothing in particular, just in the direction of the door. "_Muffliato!_"

They watched in silence.

"Of course, we can't tell if it worked until we do something…" Ginny added nervously, lowering her wand and looking back at the sword. Not until we make some noise."

"What if it didn't work?"

"Then…" Ginny swallowed, not wanting to think about what would happen if the spell hadn't worked.

"Then we run," said Luna calmly.

"Run?" Neville echoed. "Not too brave."

"We're no use to Harry dead," said Luna.

They spent a moment contemplating the morbidness of this statement. Then Ginny said, "Alright, I'm going to try to summon it. You two can wait outside so that you can run if it doesn't work."

"No." said Neville flatly. "We're in this together."

Luna nodded.

Ginny looked at them, feeling a cross of love and annoyance. There was no time to argue.

"Fine," she said. "I'll try now."

"Okay…"

There was silence as Ginny turned to face the case head-on. She raised her wand to arm level, thinking about how nervous Harry must have felt when he performed this spell before the entire school in the Triwizard Tournament, first challenge. She needed the spell to be a success now, just as he had needed it. Ever fiber in her body prayed…

"_Accio Sword!_" she spoke clearly, not too loudly.

At once, the sword smashed out of the glass case with what seemed like a deafening crash to Neville, Ginny, and Luna.

Ginny caught the sword neatly and Luna and Neville covered their ears from the noise of breaking glass.

There was a frozen pause as they all stood still, listening intently. Listening…

......

Nothing.

They heard nothing.

"We did it!" Neville whispered, breathless from relief. "No one's coming! The spell worked!"

Ginny felt her heart bound upwards in relief. "I'll keep it under my cloak. Let's get out of here."

"Yeah, right away…"

They rushed towards the other side of the room and began to pry the door open again to leave.

Neville was giddy with excitement. "I can't believe that spell worked; I guess you really know your stuff, Ginny—"

"My own spell against me? This battle's been lost before."

All the air vanished from Ginny's lungs. The three students stopped dead in their tracks and looked before them in horror.

Severus Snape was standing on the stone landing just outside of the office.

* * *

A/N:

Sorry for my lateness; I've had a hectic week. :)


	4. Helping Hands

Chapter 4 (Finally)

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Ginny thought she might choke on the dry insides of her mouth. McGonagall stood behind Snape with her eyes downcast; Snape had summoned her after having set the guilty students before his desk and leisurely seating himself across from them. Indeed, he seemed to be quite enjoying himself.

"So what will it be?" Snape's mouth curled as he brought the tips of his fingers close to his lips. "What could you have possibly begotten by stealing such a school relic?"

Ginny licked her dry lips but said nothing. She hadn't been able to think of a good enough lie for as to why they had been caught and anyway, it was better to remain silent than to lie to Snape. For the last ten minutes she had been concentrating on clearing her mind, as if in meditation, in order to foil any attempt that Snape might make at Legilemcy.

"You know that it can only do you harm to keep quiet," Snape reminded them, leaning forward slightly. "If you're not willing to speak, I know that there are alternative ways…"

Neville looked like he was about to cry.

Snape leaned back, looking disgusted. "Then there's still the issue of your punishment, of course," he said abruptly in a cold voice. "The three of you will be working in the Forbidden Forest. You will be collecting Wiggentree bark for the potions storage."

"Wiggentree bark?"

It was not Ginny who spoke, but McGonagall. She looked alarmed. "Is that really appropriate, Headmaster? Wiggentree only grows very deep—"

"I am aware of where it grows, having been a potions master at this school, as you might remember." Snape said coldly without even looking at her. "They are capable."

McGonagall fell silent.

He continued, "This is my punishment to the students. However, as head of their house, I think it is now time for you to administer your punishment."

McGonagall nodded firmly, though her mouth was tightly pressed into a thin, white line. She beckoned Ginny, Luna, and Neville out of Snape's office.

Ginny did not dare to speak to McGonagall or to Neville and Luna as the four of them swept towards McGonagall's office—not that there was much time for chatting anyway, at the pace that McGonagall was walking—she seemed to be eager to put as much distance between them and Snape as possible.

She shuffled them into her office and shut the door sharply, pointing to three chairs in front of her desk.

"Sit," she said shortly.

The three sat down and McGonagall walked around to the other side of the desk before raising her eyes to look at the students.

"I don't want to hear why you were where you were," she said in a deadpan voice, making the three shift uncomfortably. "But I must stress upon you the seriousness of what you have done."

"We didn't mean harm—" Neville unexpectedly began.

"Not your intentions, Longbottom!" McGonagall cut him off sharply. "Your motives are the purest at this time, I daresay."

They looked at her curiously. She had a strangely motherly look on her face.

"I have faith in the reason you three tried to steal that sword, so I will not press that matter. But you must understand—that the new administration at Hogwarts is just looking for a reason to throw students like you out."

"We know," said Luna softly.

"Then your decision may have been even more foolish than I expected." McGonagall straightened up. "Times have changed," she said in a slightly shaky voice. "There is little that my influence can do to help you if you should land yourselves in trouble again. Therefore, I must implore you to be careful."

She looked at them meaningfully, and it suddenly struck Ginny as odd that McGonagall was merely warning them to be careful and not to _stop_ their activities. Did she know…?

"I am obliged to add to your punishment," McGonagall continued slowly, "though I do feel that the Headmaster's is sufficiently harsh. Therefore, we'll keep it mild—detention in my office for the next four Mondays."

Ginny started—that was hardly what she would consider mild, but McGonagall was shaking her head.

"With the new regime has come a new standard of discipline," she said simply.

There was a heavy silence between them.

McGonagall cleared her throat. "Then you should all be getting to bed. Longbottom and Lovegood—" she directed at them, "I will escort you back to the dormitory so that you won't be stopped by any other teachers. Miss Weasley, you will wait here until I return. I need to speak with you about a certain matter. I am locking you in."

Ginny swallowed painfully. She didn't like the sound of whatever McGonagall had in mind, but she nodded. Neville and Luna shot looks of pity towards Ginny as they retreated towards the doorway, but with McGonagall shooing them out, they couldn't linger or drop a word of comfort.

The door shut with a snap behind the three of them and Ginny heard a slight squelching noise as the door locked.

Ginny sighed heavily and drooped in her chair, cupping her face in her hands. What did McGonagall want? Ginny had no idea what to expect, but she did not like this foreboding feeling.

Miserably dropping her hands into her lap, Ginny surveyed the office. A small tin of biscuits sat on her desk, but Ginny felt to nauseated to even reach for one, though she had barely had dinner.

Feeling too antsy to stay seated, Ginny stood up and wandered over to the filing cabinets on the far side of the room. They were probably only disciplinary records of all those who had been in Gryffindor for the past thirty years, but Ginny felt strangely curious. After running her finger along the cold metal surface for a moment, she impulsively pulled open the top drawer.

The cabinet was stuffed with folders, surprisingly not dusty, because, Ginny noted, they seemed to concern recent students. She recognized her own file, nearly empty, along with the files of some of her peers. Fred and George had a shared file, and Ginny noted that it was about seven times thicker than anyone elses. She smiled faintly, pulling out the folder and opening it. Her eyes glazed idly over the repeated records of their wrongdoings, from igniting dungbombs in the hallways to creating a swamp in the corridor, as they did last year.

She replaced the file and continued browsing. Dean Thomas's didn't look too interesting…Parvati Patil's…and…

Ginny's heart almost stopped when she saw "Potter". She had known it had to be here, but seeing it made her nervous. The file didn't turn out to be that interesting, once she opened it; it didn't contain information on any of Harry's drastic endeavors; they only included the trivial records. Still, it was nice to see Harry's name, even if only on a paper like this. Ginny read through the file, tracing Harry's name with her finger before replacing it in the cabinet, feeling very heavy. She was about to close it when she noticed one other file: it stood out because it was rather thicker than the rest; almost as big as Fred and George's, but it was also lumpy. Frowning, Ginny bent back the tab of the file to read it.

Hermione Granger

Ginny started. If she had had to guess a person at random, that was the last name she would have come up with! What could Hermione have done to get in trouble with McGonagall…? Feeling extremely curious, Ginny pulled out the file and opened it. She saw at once why it was big: it was not because of a great mass of records, but because there was a little hourglass on a chain inside the folder. There were a few other papers, as well as a letter next to the hourglass, but Ginny ignored them and removed the hourglass, holding it up to the light to examine.

What was this? Why had McGonagall confiscated it from Hermione? Was it a dark object? Ginny didn't feel that the last possibility was particularly likely, for if it was dangerous, then McGonagall probably wouldn't keep it in her office, yet she felt perplexed by the little object. She held it up against a candle and observed how the light broke into particles as it filtered through the glass…

Just then, there was the squelching noise at the door again, and Ginny knew that McGonagall was back. Without thinking, she hastily shoved the file back into the cabinet, while keeping the hourglass in hand, and she closed the drawer. She barely managed to throw the chain over her neck, hide it down the front of her robes, and step away from the cabinet just as McGonagall entered the office.

McGonagall entered looking over her shoulder at the door, giving Ginny a few additional seconds to move back to where she had been sitting. Anyhow, Professor McGonagall acted somehow far away, as if troubled, and didn't seem to notice anything.

Ginny waited silently as McGonagall swept over to her desk and seated herself behind it, sighing a little.

"No need to look so scared, Miss Weasley," McGonagall said in a surprisingly business-like voice after a pause. "I just wanted to warn you personally about what you have done, since I suspect that this operation was your idea."

Ginny raised an eyebrow. In truth, obviously, it had really been more of Neville who had started this, but there was no need to tell McGonagall that…

"You got off easy this time," McGonagall said. "Both from me and the Headmaster. As I've already told you, this school is changing. In the future, the punishment for treason will be expulsion."

"Treason?" Ginny found this word altogether inappropriate.

"Yes, Miss Weasley, treason. This is not the same school that you entered six years ago." Her tone was harsh. "Any acts of malignance against school property are going to be treated as direct protests against the Ministry of Magic. Rebelling against the government in this way is considered treason."

Ginny said nothing.

"I tell you this specifically because I know you to be charismatic and clever, like your brothers," McGonagall continued. "If there was someone in this school who could create a foundation of rebellion, I'm sure it could be you." Her eyes pierced Ginny's.

Ginny felt extremely confused. Although McGonagall spoke of its dangers, Ginny was somehow getting the impression that she was trying to send her a message about rebel groups.

"And so, you've been warned," McGonagall concluded slowly. "If I get word that you or any other students have yet been defying the school rules, you will have a hard time finding sympathy, even from me. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Professor," Ginny said slowly. McGonagall was definitely acting strange.

"Good. Then I will escort you back to the dorms now."

Once back in bed, Ginny couldn't fall asleep. Not only was she sure that by insisting against a resistance, McGonagall had been trying to discreetly engender one in Ginny, but Ginny also felt nervous about their punishment with Snape. Not about performing it, but about how they would hide it from the rest of the defense club members. She really didn't want them to find out. She fingered the hourglass on the chain, missing Hermione as much as her brothers and Harry. She rolled over. If only Hermione were here she could give Ginny some advice…

**XxX**

Neither Luna nor Neville seemed particularly troubled the next morning, or at least they did a good job hiding it if they were. Ginny got the impression that they felt somewhat guilty about having forced Ginny into it and wanted to write off the punishment as non-trivial. Which was ironic, since inherently, Ginny was the most familiar with the Forbidden Forest of the three of them.

It was a Saturday and there should have been a meeting of the defense club that night at 9:00, but obviously that would have to now be canceled. Ginny dreaded having to tell Blaise that the meeting was off, more than she dreaded the forest. She had been toying with the idea, actually, of just not showing up to the meeting at all without warning. Blaise could certainly handle the club alone for the evening and then Ginny could later come up with some trivial excuse, like that McGonagall had unexpectedly summoned her to her office or something. Indeed, the more Ginny thought about it, the more she began to like that option. Blaise ought to buy it in any case.

Feeling slightly more cheerful, Ginny returned to her toast. The morning among the three friends was quiet, with Neville seeming preoccupied and Luna nestled comfortably with the latest issue of the Quibbler.

They had to have an early dinner so that they could meet before the Forest at seven o'clock. Ginny felt nervous as she pulled out her wand with Luna and Neville. Although they had braved the forest a few times against school rules, this was the first time they were venturing in so deep, and without any teacher or upperclassman guide at all. I suppose we are the upperclassmen now. Ginny realized.

"Lumos!" Neville muttered almost the moment they entered the forest, and Ginny could see why: the shroud of the trees compared to the faint light of the clearings was remarkable.

"Do we know where to look?" Neville asked.

"McGonagall sort of mentioned that they would be deep in the forest," Ginny said, shrugging.

"Ah. Great," Neville looked as nervous as Ginny felt, but he wore his emotions on his face. "I don't even know what Wiggentrees look like, do you?"

Ginny shook her head, but Luna, surprisingly, nodded. "I've seen photos," she affirmed. "And they can't be too different from Wisclows."

Luna started to lead the way with something of an air of authority. Ginny and Neville exchanged looks, but they had long since given up arguing with Luna on such matters. Whatever Wisclows were, they were following Luna. Ginny was actually pleased that she could take a more passive role.

They walked in silence for more than twenty minutes, the forest getting blacker and blacker with each step. Ginny wondered uneasily how they were going to find these trees if they couldn't even _see_ one meter in front of them.

"What are you following?" Ginny muttered to Luna, who strangely seemed to know where they were going.

Luna pointed to the ground. Ginny followed her gaze to see what looked like normal shrubbery, though admittedly very ugly. But Luna said, "Wiggentree lives in symbiosis with Fyoder Snare," as if that explained everything. "They can't be too far apart. But watch out," Luna added, "It can grab."

"_Grab?_"

Ginny and Neville shuffled closer to Luna. "How do you know all this?"

"I do pay attention in Herbology sometimes," she said. "And yes, it can grab, so watch out—"

Ginny screamed just as Luna said this, collapsing to the ground: a coil of the plant was curled around her ankle. She could feel it pressing deeply into her skin, and at the same time, it seemed to be pulling her backwards, like the entire shrub would swallow her up.

"Like _that_!" Luna jumped and pointed her wand at Ginny, but Neville grabbed her wrist.

"You'll hit Ginny!"

"We have to cut it!"

"Can you do _something_?!" Ginny screamed as more tangles started snaking up her body, getting her wrists.

"Diffindo!" Neville shouted, pointing wildly. "_Diffindo!_"

The first one seemed to have missed; Ginny shut her eyes tightly, bracing herself for the painful slash of the spell, but it didn't come. Instead, she felt the pressure lightening around her leg and arms considerably, and then two more pairs of arms roughly pulling her out of the plant's weakened grasp.

"G—good aim, Neville," Ginny said, weak with breathlessness and shaking.

"Are you okay?" Neville and Luna demanded.

"Yeah, I'm fine—oh, no…" Ginny's arms were covered with red welts from the plant.

"It's okay," she insisted. "It doesn't even hurt, honestly. They'll go away soon."

"Are you sure?" Luna asked. "We can go back."

"No." Ginny said determinedly, pushing her sleeves back down to hide the marks. "I'm fine. We're almost there. Let's just get this over with."

**XxX**

It was past ten o'clock before the three of them returned to the castle. Fortunately, nothing catastrophic had happened on the rest of the trip; they had really gotten rather lucky.

Ginny dismissed Neville and Luna, stopping at the hospital wing to get her arms looked at, but Madame Pomfery didn't seem to think it was anything serious, so Ginny headed back to the dormitory alone.

She rubbed at her arms and almost had a heart attack when she turned the final corner and nearly ran into a tall, dark figure.

"B—Blaise!" she recognized, stepping back and gasping in relief, while pulling down her sleeves. "You scared me, what the hell are you…" but she trailed off at the look on Blaise's face.

She had never seen him look so angry; he had not been nearly as mad that first night at the defense meeting. He seemed to radiate shadows.

"What?" said Ginny defensively, although she had a sickening feeling in her stomach that she knew what this was about.

"Rough night?" Blaise asked in a cold voice after a frozen pause.

"I've had better, yeah." Ginny said, tugging her robes around her defiantly. "I want to go to bed, can you move?"

"What's that?" Blaise suddenly demanded, looking at Ginny's sleeve. Ginny looked down and saw that some of her welts were showing.

"It's nothing." she said automatically, stepping back.

"Let me see it."

"No!"

He looked at her incredulously. "You've hurt yourself." he accused. "Where were you all night? Why didn't you come to the meeting?"

"I....couldn't make it. Something came up." Ginny said, flushing. She had thought that she would be able to come up with a good excuse, but she was having difficulties. "Did it go okay?"

"I noticed that you were gone and that it was strange for you to miss your own club meeting, but I thought maybe you had gotten sick." Blaise said, ignoring her question. "But then I noticed that your pals Lovegood and Longbottom weren't there either. And I started to wonder if there might be a relation between the two."

Blaise spoke in a mocking voice, making Ginny angrier.

"When none of you came for the whole meeting, I was perplexed," Blaise continued. "It wasn't normal. I thought there might be something seriously wrong. So I went to Professor McGonagall to ask if she knew anything about it."

Ginny's heart fell.

"And she told me the most interesting story, would you believe?" Blaise continued, not even bothering to be sarcastic anymore. "She said that the three of you had spent the evening on detention in the Forbidden Forest. Imagine my surprise! She wouldn't tell me what for, naturally, but I gathered that it had to be a direct offense against the headmaster. And in reflection, I knew it probably had something to do with the club that you missed this very evening."

Ginny frowned. "So you came here to wait for us?"

"Not quite. I first tried to go down to the grounds to find you three, but McGonagall wouldn't allow it. Said it was your specific punishment and that I shouldn't make it worse. Then I decided that I needed to hear the truth from you."

Ginny wondered how long Blaise had been waiting there. And he had tried to follow them into the woods? Was he nuts or what?

"So what should I say?" Ginny asked. "It's true, okay! We got detention with Snape in the Forest."

"What for?" he demanded.

"Trying to steal the sword of Gryffindor." She said it bluntly, not giving a damn of the consequences.

Blaise surprisingly, said nothing but narrowed his eyes. "On behalf of the club?"

"Maybe," said Ginny defiantly.

"Don't play games!" his voice suddenly got a steely, demanding quality and his eyes flashed. "This isn't a damn joke! You could have gotten killed in the forest!"

"Yeah, what a shame, huh?" Ginny snapped back. She pushed past him and stalked towards the portrait hole. She was not expecting Blaise to roughly grab her arm and pull her back but that's what he did. He didn't know how much it hurt, with Ginny's arms already sore.

"I'm talking to you! Why didn't you alert the club?"

"It's none of your business!"

"Fights against the _Ministry_ are as much my business as my god damn breakfast cereal!" he shouted, twisting her arm. "When did you get so selfish? Was it about the club? Or does it have something to do with your precious _Potter?_" he spoke the word with venom.

Ginny felt something snap. "Thank your God I can't reach my wand!" She shouted, close to tears. "I know what how it feels to want to perform an unforgivable curse now!"

Blaise said nothing, but shoved her away from him in disgust and then turned and stormed off in a fury.

It was a pretty rough shove, and Ginny fell backwards, tripping over the hem of the carpet and hitting her head on a low table. Everything had gone dark before she even landed.

* * *

A/N: Sorry I've taken...forever....

You wouldn't believe my luck, though! My lousy computer broke and it took forever to get a new one and all my old writing was on that one...

Anyway, I sincerely apologize although my behavior was inexcusable. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	5. Hogwarts Abandoned

The Hourglass: Chapter 5

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Ginny's eyes slowly opened and the surrounding world shyly took form out of the blackness. She sat up gingerly and a sharp pain in the back of her head reminded her why she was on the floor in the first place. _That bastard,_ she thought vaguely. _The next time I see him…_

Ginny rubbed her eyes vigorously, feeling them stinging with anger and shame. Then she shook her head and got to her feet. She was about to proceed through the portrait hole into the common room when she suddenly realized something very odd: there was no portrait on the wall. Ginny stared blankly at the empty stretch of wall in front of her for about ten seconds before rubbing her eyes again, to make sure that she was really seeing correctly. She was. There was no portrait on the wall; neither of the fat lady nor anyone else. Had someone taken down the portrait while she had been unconscious? No, that made no sense. Was she where she thought she was? Had someone moved her while she was out?

Ginny looked carefully at her surroundings. No, she was definitely right where she should be to enter the Gryffindor common room; she knew this place well. It was exactly where she had been before Blaise shoved her. Then what…was going on?

The hairs on the back of Ginny's neck began to stand on edge when she realized that cold, gray sunlight was filtering through one of the windows high on the wall. It was early morning. Why was everything so…quiet?

That was it, Ginny realized. There was utter silence around her, not even the creak of armor or the muted sound of candle wax dripping, or the soft _whoosh_ of ghosts passing through the walls.

Feeling utterly unnerved now, and forgetting the pain in her head, Ginny decided to try to find one of the teachers, a student, _anyone_ to figure out what was happening. She set off at a brisk pace, rubbing her hands together, to the entrance hall. She met no one on the way; it was literally as though everyone was sleeping in or something. The entrance hall was deserted; so was the Great Hall and the adjacent corridor of classrooms. Feeling desperate, Ginny set out at a run to McGonagall's office. Not even bothering to knock, she wrenched the door open. "Hello?" she asked, poking her head in. No one.

Ginny swallowed and entered the empty office, sitting down in front of McGonagall's desk to think. What was this? Had everyone moved away in the night? Was she dreaming? Ginny shivered and sadly pulled her cloak more tightly around her. She looked around McGonagall's office. It looked cold; only the furniture remained. There were no papers or folders lying about, which struck Ginny as very odd. Then she started, and realized something else: the desk was dusty. She leaned forward and put one finger on it. Sweeping it across, she saw the shiny mark that she had left in the otherwise uniform layer of dust.

_Some dark magic must be going on,_ Ginny thought, rubbing her powdery thumb and forefinger together. Hogwarts was empty. Moreover, it was really starting to look like the castle had been deserted for a long time, as though no one had been in for years. Ginny turned this disturbing idea over in her mind for a few more moments. She didn't like it, but it seemed like the most likely explanation. She stood up, fumbling with the front of her robes and finding her wand. By God's grace, at least she still had that.

_I have to get out of here,_ Ginny thought firmly, though still in shock._ I__ need to find someone, figure out what's going on…_

With this new resolve, she quickly looked around the office to see if there was anything of use she should take with her, but it seemed that everything was empty, including the filing cabinets and the drawers. Ginny set off for the front doors at a brisk walk, holding her ignited wand tip in front of her to help her see where she was going.

Now that she was aware of the situation, Ginny wondered why she hadn't noticed the desolate signs on the way down to the Great Hall: there were cobwebs in every corner and puffs of dust raised as she walked to the front of the school. Arriving before the great doors, she paused to examine their locking mechanism. She had to undo six locks from the inside, but then when she pushed on the handle, the door still would not open. Feeling frustrated, she kicked it sharply, but all that accomplished was a painful toe in addition to a locked door. Desperate, Ginny whipped out her wand, pointed it at the door and cried, "_Reducto!_"

The Reductor Curse blasted the door out of Ginny's way, as intended, but created a great crashing noise, as well as bits of wood flying everywhere. Ginny shielded her eyes and coughed until the dust died down; then she hurried out through the hole she had created.

From the outside, Ginny could see that the front doors had been boarded shut, adding to the pooling feeling of fear and dread in her stomach, but at least now she was out in the open.

It was an overcast morning. The sky was stern like an angry parent; even the air seemed grey and forbidding. A cruel wind skinned Ginny's nose, and she fumbled with her robes again, looking for a muffler. She found Blaise's scarf and hastily threw it around her throat and lower face, stifling the cold somewhat. Ginny's eyes watered as she scanned the barren grounds, empty like the rest of the school. Ginny slowly started to walk around the perimeter of the school, using the school's high altitude to her advantage. She stopped when she saw the village of Hogsmead off in the distance. Squinting at it, she could see what looked like…streams of smoke coming from the chimneys! Ginny's breath almost caught in her chest so fast was her swelling sensation of relief. Somebody was there then, somebody had to be! She had to get to the village…

Ginny frowned. Usually when they visited Hogsmead, Hogwarts provided carriages for the trip…and obviously she couldn't Apparate. How should she get there? Ginny was struck by the inspiration of the Quidditch field hoops off in the distance. Smiling for the first time that day, and praying to God that the school hadn't been looted, Ginny shut her eyes, concentrated on the brooms in the school broom shed and said, "Accio Broom!"

She heard nothing at first, then a whistling noise, as a broomstick flew towards her from the direction of the Quidditch field. She caught it when it came to her: a lousy old Shooting Star, but a broomstick nevertheless. She was lucky that the school's brooms hadn't been removed altogether. Swinging one leg over the broom, she kicked off sharply from the frozen ground.

With a tremendous rush of air, Ginny rose up into the frigid morning air, and despite herself, she couldn't help but feel the familiar thrill of the pleasure of flying, even if only on this miserably log that bent towards the left. Ginny turned towards Hogsmead and soared over the silent grounds like a bat.

She landed gently, staggering slightly as she got off the broom on the frozen dirt. The village was as silent from up close as it had been from afar, but at least there were signs of life here. A few figures in black capes hurried across the streets, but no one stopped to take a look at Ginny; it was as if everyone were in a terrible hurry. Or perhaps just unwilling to stay out on the streets longer than was necessary. Frowning, Ginny tucked the broomstick under her arm and set off down the main street. _At the very least I should stop for a butterbeer…_ she thought. Ginny was beginning to realize that no one besides her seemed to think that anything was amiss. At least not in an impending danger kind of way. It was as if she had simply woken up in a different time frame, that was all. She wondered if she would be able to strike up a chat with and figure out what was going on up at Hogwarts.

The Three Broomsticks was missing. In its place was what looked to be a robes shop, but it was currently closed. The Hogs Head was the one building that was exactly where it had been and as it had been before Ginny had woken up in this bizarre dream. Ginny pushed open the peeling door frame and found herself in the depressing, but blessedly familiar innards of the Hog's Head. Same rotting wooden floors, same dim lamps, so smeared from the outside with dirt that they hardly gave any light; it was mostly empty except for a few hooded men in the corner, crouched over an array of mugs and speaking in low voices. One of them glanced over at Ginny as she entered.

Shivering, she walked straight to the aging barman, who was staring at her, and ordered a butterbeer. Ginny was the only one who spoke during the interaction. Ginny then chose a seat at a table near the hooded men, hoping to overhear some information about what on earth was going on. Maybe she could even question them personally. She casually opened the bottle, hoping to come off as nonchalant.

"…sent Wormtail to do it instead…"

Ginny froze, holding the bottle in midair, when she caught this fragment of speech from the other table. She carefully put down the bottle and hid her hands under the table so that the men would not see them shaking if they happened to look over.

The other two men snorted. "Meaning we'll be cleaning up the mess for the next two weeks," one remarked with a voice laced with derision.

"The Dark Lord is impatient with our progress," grunted the first man again, drawing circles around his mug with an idle finger. "It's only natural that he wants the job done as soon as possible. Remember the Muggle prime minister is now under our control, but most Muggles still have no idea what's happening."

The other two laughed coarsely.

_Death Eaters,_ Ginny thought desperately, knees shaking as well now. _Death Eaters—in Hogsmead! What on earth…?_

Now wanting to put as much distance as possible between herself and the Death Eaters, Ginny hastily gulped down her drink, spilling a substantial amount down her front, and jumped to her feet. The motion seemed to attract the attention of the Death Eaters, who stopped their conversation and looked over. Not making eye contact, Ginny picked up the broomstick in a would-be casual manner before heading briskly towards the exit. Back out on the street, she sighed in relief and continued walking down the familiar path.

Death Eaters in Hogsmead. It was unheard of. Ginny still could hardly believe what was happening. She had always considered Hogsmead to be as an extension of Hogwarts, as safe and friendly as the castle. Yet here were supporters of Voldemort, openly declared by the looks of it, having a chat in a local bar! What were Voldemort's plans and how had they gained so much support in so little a time? Was this whole village full of Death Eaters? Ginny was beginning to think that it was a mistake to have come here at all.

Troubled by these thoughts, she did not notice that for a while now, one of the Death Eaters from the bar had been following behind her at a distance.

As she shook her head to clear it and form a plan of action though, she stopped walking and heard the footsteps behind her continue for a split second before stopping as well. Ginny hesitated. She was too afraid to turn around, but she chanced a tiny glance from the corner of her eye, and saw the man in her peripheral vision.

Her heart rate picked up. She tried to keep her breathing under control. After all, it wouldn't do to lose her cool and suddenly attack him or something. She should just get to an isolated place and hide. She started to walk again, faster, heading for the rocky hills on the outskirts of the village.

The Death Eater picked up his pace as Ginny did, and she found herself invariably speeding up in an effort to evade him. Without thinking, Ginny turned sharply into an alley and broke into a sprint. She heard a muted curse and then the sound of heavy footsteps as the man began to chase after her.

Ginny stopped thinking altogether, she just ran and ran, taking as many complicated right and left turns as possible in order to lose him. The air seemed to be getting colder as she went, making it laborious and painful to draw breath, but she didn't stop. She knew this village better than he did; it must be possible to lose him in the network of buildings and alleys that she had played in ever since she was eleven. Soon, the sound of footsteps behind her faded, but Ginny kept going, not caring whether or not he was following her. She had made up her mind to head for the hills. Once there, she would be out of the magical bounds and she could Disapparate to London to find out what was happening.

Ginny finally stopped running. It was eerily cold. She looked around her in all directions, but saw nothing—she had lost him. Each gulp of air felt like freezing knives in her lungs. Ginny leaned back against the wall, and slowly slid down against it, until she was sitting on the ground. She remained like this for several minutes, just wondering why the run had not warmed her up.

Then she heard it. A soft rattling noise like a breath being drawn through a fishing net. Ginny did not want to open her eyes, because she knew what she would see, but she peeled her eyelids apart anyway.

A dementor glided towards her, its foul rotting aura causing the almost dead anyway grass to shrink away in disgust. Ginny just sat, frozen, watching its descent. This was the reason for the weather and the atmosphere. Probably there were dementors here everywhere on guard, set to work by the Death Eaters.

_Why did I come to Hogsmead? _Was the last thing Ginny remembered thinking before darkness began to engulf her. She felt desperately lonely and hopeless, abandoned by her friends, her family, and now by Hogwarts. Ginny weakly reached for her wand, knowing she knew this spell, but unable to perform it. She could not think of a single happy memory. Only darkness, despair...

The dementor drew closer and held out its clammy, scabbing hands as if to embrace her. They landed instead on her jaw, pulling her face towards the hood of the dementor.

Ginny's body went limp like a puppet as her last resolve to fight left her and she realized that she had always been curious about what was under a dementor's hood.

At that moment, a silvery white light brighter than a thousand candles blinded Ginny. Vaguely, behind the shape of the patronus, Ginny could make out the figure of yet another man with a covered face, producing it. The form was more graceful than the Death Eater's had been, so it wasn't him. Then who was it? Ginny felt the hands on her jaw weaken their grasp and finally drop her down, where she crumpled on the frigid ground.

A horse patronus charged down the dementor, driving it away from Ginny and out of sight. Then the horse tossed its mane in a satisfied sort of way and trotted back towards Ginny. She sat up weakly and reached out to touch the horse, but it faded through her fingers and soon as she tried to make contact. She slowly looked up at the man.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked in a rough voice, pulling her up by the front of her robes and brushing dead grass off her shoulders as Ginny just stared. "You know they've got dementors patrolling the whole area; you can't just go around alone like—"

Then the man suddenly cut himself off. He seemed to have caught sight of Ginny's muffler and was now staring at her as if in awe. He raised his hand and touched her chin, tilting it up to look at her more clearly. He stared for a full ten seconds and then moved his hand up, as if wanting to touch her eyes. Ginny jerked her face away and stepped back sharply.

"What's going on? Why are there Death Eaters here?" she asked in as firm a voice as she could manage, though still very shaken.

He didn't answer. Instead, he took a step forward again and said very slowly, "Ginny…don't you recognize me?"

"I don't know you!" she said in a panic, drawing her cloak tightly around her. "How do you know me? Who are you!?"

"Ginny…" his voice was mellowed with disbelief, and he lowered his hood. "Ginny—it's _me_. Blaise!"

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The drama escalades.


	6. Changes and Constants

The Hourglass: Chapter 6

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Ginny sat close to the fire, knees pulled up to her chest, watching the man warily.

The two were in some sort of cave; a landing high up in the rocky hills that Ginny had had her eyes on. She didn't know exactly what had possessed her to follow him here when he had asked her to come along. Probably mostly just the knowledge that she'd rather be with a stranger than in a dementor-infested village.

It had taken nearly twenty minutes to trek to the peak of the hill, and then the man had ducked into his abode, a cocooned encavement to the side of a clearing, and he had started a small fire with a careless sweep of his wand, giving it a feeling like home.

She hadn't given much thought to the man's profession since he had first stated it. Surprisingly, he had made no more attempts to convince her of his sincerity. Perhaps because of her skepticism, he had merely asked her to follow him and then led her here.

Ginny narrowed her eyes, following each of his movements carefully as he strode about the cave, tossing off his cloak. He certainly moved like Blaise. Although the man had longer legs than the Blaise Ginny knew, the loping, almost strut-like gait was undeniable. Not that this proved anything.

She didn't know what to think. Of course, her first reaction was that it couldn't possibly be true, but…could it? Nothing that had happened in the last hour since she woke up in Hogwarts had made any sense. Couldn't this be true, then? Ginny fancied she must feel like Harry did when he first found out he was a wizard.

The man cautiously came over and sat adjacent to her by the fire, drawing his wand. She flinched, but all he did was perform a flame freezing charm to control the rapidly-growing tongues of fire.

"Want some tea?" he asked unexpectedly.

"What?" Ginny had been watching this bit of magic she had never seen before in astonishment.

"Accio Teapot!"

The man didn't wait for Ginny's reply and summoned the vessel. He propped it over the now-tame flames. "It takes a while to get hot, but it's better than forcing it magically, trust me," he said.

Ginny almost snorted. _Trust me._ That was indeed going to be the challenge, but she thought that hot tea was the least of her worries.

He adjusted the kettle and from a closer view, Ginny now studied his mask-less face. His skin was indeed the precise shade of Blaise's and he had the same slanted dark eyes, liquid as ink and just as easy to slip into. However, he was taller than the Blaise Ginny knew and slightly more muscular than Blaise's lean frame. And there was something fundamentally different. Maybe it was the way there were miniscule wrinkles around his eyes when he squinted at the flames, or perhaps it was just the way he set his jaw, but he looked…different. Much older. Not just physically, but…_psychologically_. Like he had been to hell and back.

Ginny frowned and mentally shook her head to clear it. He wasn't—_couldn't_ be Blaise Zabini. It wasn't humanly possible. Most likely this man was just crazy.

Perhaps he felt Ginny's eyes, but the man suddenly looked up at her and half-smiled. He had remained curiously silent up until now, possibly waiting until they were in a safe place. Maybe he just wanted to go somewhere secluded before doing something despicable; that was just as possible.

But for some reason, Ginny thought it unlikely. She didn't feel afraid of him. And after all, he had saved her life so it wasn't like she could politely refuse to accompany him anyway.

_Saved my life._ Hm. Ginny mused on that. Getting kissed by a dementor didn't kill you, right? It took away your soul. _So he saved my soul,_ she concluded. That was an odd debt to be in.

"Here." The man handed Ginny a cup of tea, which she took cautiously, warming her hands with it. She was about to take a sip, but noticed him staring at her. She paused, then set the cup down next to her.

She took a deep breath, intending to cut straight to the chase and get some answers out of him, but suddenly found that she was overwhelmed by questions and didn't know what to ask first.

"Whaw—" her tongue slipped as she tried to say "what", "who" and "how" at the same time.

He raised his eyebrows amusedly at her (in a very Blaise-ish way, though she hated to admit it). "Drink up," was his response. "You look very weak."

"I need to know what's happening," she said breathlessly. "You don't know how this feels. I didn't know where I was when I woke up this morning."

"Please drink," he had a slightly imploring tone.

"No!" She knew she was being unnecessarily stubborn, but she needed answers now. "First tell me what's going on."

He sighed and rubbed at his temples. "I remember this," he said, more to himself almost than to Ginny. He looked at her. "I understand your confusion; I don't even understand this all myself. But I will tell you whatever I know if you drink first," he said. "It'll do you good."

Ginny glared at him. She picked up the cup and slowly, very slowly raised it to her lips, vaguely wondering if it was poisoned. After smelling it, she decided to down the whole thing in a mouthful and promptly choked on the too-hot liquid.

He clicked his tongue, but in an almost endearing way as she spat some of it out onto the cave floor.

"_God_, that's hot—"

"Shh!" he warningly shushed her and when she fell silent, he hesitated, poised for about fifteen seconds, listening. Ginny didn't know what they were listening for, but when nothing happened, he relaxed.

Tongue burnt, Ginny set down the cup again.

"Now can you tell me?" she asked again, knowing that she was sounding like a broken record. "Who are you?"

He said nothing, just got up and walked, almost strolled, really, towards the back of the cave, until Ginny couldn't see him anymore. She could hear him, though. It sounded like he was rummaging. She held her breath, and he returned a few moments later, appearing from the blackness with a folded newspaper in his hand.

"Usually I don't go into town," he said softly. "It's been like that—the way you saw it—for a long time now. But I make a trip each Sunday to get a newspaper." He fingered the paper pensively.

"Why don't you get it delivered?" Ginny asked automatically.

He shook his head. "Don't want owls coming this way all the time. Looks suspicious."

She stared at him, wondering what the hell he meant by all this, when he suddenly dropped the newspaper at her feet.

"Take a look," he said gently.

Ginny frowned up at him briefly before unraveling the paper.

What hit her first was not the headline. It was the fine print just below the bold black words.

_Sunday, November 28, 2001_

2001. Her worst fears confirmed at last, Ginny slowly looked up. The man was looking at her strangely. _It's like the way Dad looks at me,_ Ginny realized.

She swallowed hard, trying to find her voice. "…_How_?" it came out as a dry squeak.

"That," said the man, slowly kneeling by her side and reaching for her hand, though Ginny jerked it away in fear, "is exactly what I want to know. How are you here, Ginny? I thought I'd never—"

He abruptly stopped, as if suddenly realizing that he didn't want to finish that line of thought.

Ginny looked away miserably, feeling a combination of panic and for some reason, nostalgia rising through her senses like hot water. "Who _are_ you?" she moaned.

"I told you that. You recognize me, Ginny. You know I'm Blaise Zabini."

"You're _not!_" Ginny jumped to her feet and backed away, voice shaking badly. "You're—you're _mad_ is what you are! It's not 2001, it's 1994 and you aren't Blaise Zabini! You aren't! You can't be…" her voice broke and trailed off in despair.

"Shh," he shushed her again, but kindly. "You're very confused, it's understandable—"

"I'm not confused, _you're_ confused!" she whimpered, backing away towards the entrance of the cave.

"You're right about that," he smiled wryly. "I need answers from you, too. You need to stay here; I'm your friend, I can help you."

"You're not my friend."

He paused, closing his eyes and then opening them slowly and looking at her scarf.

"…I gave you that," he said softly, pointing to it, making Ginny look down nervously. "We were talking about the educational decrees…and walking around the lake. You were cold, so I conjured it for you."

Ginny blanched, but stood frozen to the spot.

The man paused. "We got into a pretty nasty fight not too long after. You had hurt yourself in the woods and I was upset that you had gotten in trouble. You said you wanted to use an unforgivable curse on me."

Ginny was starting to feel very cold in her extremities; her feet and hands were like dead fish, weighing her down.

"I shoved you and stormed off…"

Very slowly, Ginny walked over to the man and sat down next to him. He stopped talking as she did so. She stared into the fire for a long time.

"What's happening….Blaise?" she finally asked, though the name felt strange and utterly wrong in her mouth. "What's happened to Hogwarts?"

The man faintly smiled at her use of his name. "Does this mean you believe me?"

"What's wrong with Hogwarts, Blaise?" she asked, not looking him in the eyes. She didn't think she had a choice but to believe him.

He paused.

"What do _you_ remember?" he asked finally. "It's hard to summarize a book for someone if you don't know where they stopped reading."

Her eyebrows knitted together as she thought. "Just where you said," she concluded. "We had a fight after I came back from detention with McGonagall. You shoved me."

"That was seven years ago," said Blaise. "It's 2001 now. There is no Hogwarts."

"_What?_" Ginny looked at him in horror, but Blaise only spoke impassively to the fire.

"The Ministry's grip on the school curriculum tightened all throughout my seventh year at Hogwarts—your sixth," Blaise explained. "At the end of the year, there was a full-out battle at Hogwarts. Potter had come back and everyone was after him or with him. Only two sides. There were Death Eaters everywhere, werewolves, the Dark Lord himself…"

"_Vol_—?" Ginny began, but Blaise lunged towards her and clamped his hands over her mouth.

"Don't say it," he hissed. "It's jinxed. They know where you are if you say the name…" he slowly got off her and Ginny touched her mouth in shock.

"…and yes, You-Know-Who was there," he continued.

"What happened?" Ginny asked, though she thought she knew the answer.

Blaise didn't say anything for a long time.

"Hogwarts closed down afterwards," he said. "The third corridor had been completely blown away, and anyway, there was no way You-Know-Who was going to let the school bounce back after that."

"We…lost." Ginny said, uncertainly, waiting, hoping that Blaise would correct her. He didn't.

She dropped her face into her hands. "What about Harry?" she mumbled, words slightly garbled from her palms. "What happened with him?"

Blaise said nothing.

Ginny's eyes widened in horror as she guessed at Harry's fate. She looked down at the floor, mute in shock. "How? _How?_ How did it all go so wrong?" she demanded, looking back at Blaise with tears in her eyes. "We are—I—we _were_ strong!"

"After that, the Ministry took over everything," said Blaise tonelessly. "Hogwarts closed, the rebels were put down; those smart enough to pretend to be happy about the takeover, or at least to keep their mouths shut were spared…"

Something in the way he said it gave Ginny a twinge of doubt in her chest.

"...did _you_ pretend to switch sides to save your life?" she asked carefully. He looked at her sharply.

"As quick-witted as ever, I see," he remarked.

"That doesn't answer my question."

Blaise looked at the ceiling. "They killed them all, Ginny," he said softly. "You don't understand. Either you were with them, or you were their enemy."

"So in other words, yes, you did?" Ginny guessed. Her tone had grown a little cold.

"Dead men don't lead revolutions," said Blaise flatly. He got to his feet and stepped away from Ginny.

She fidgeted with the hem of her robes, feeling a little abashed. "Even Harry…?" she sighed again, more to herself.

"Even Harry." Blaise's voice nearly matched Ginny's in empathy, which made her look at him curiously. Blaise always used to speak of Harry with venom in the past. She had to face it. Blaise had…grown up. And she was still a girl.

Now feeling really humbled, Ginny's ears grew hot and she cast about for a change of subject.

"Why are you here?"

He shrugged. "I like to keep near Hogsmead," he said, picking through a trunk. "It's comforting. Not just that, but it's where most of the meetings take place."

"Meetings?"

"The Death Eaters," he explained. "Ginny…," he turned to look at her again. "I don't understand at all. All the Apparition portals were closed. How did _you_ get here?"

Ginny thought. "I really don't know," she said honestly. "I'm…sixteen. You're…"

"24."

"I don't know how I managed to skip seven years," she said, baffled. "You were seventeen and we were arguing. Then you pushed me and I hit my head…and I woke up here."

Blaise frowned. "There are charms everywhere. Only some really advanced magic could break it…are you sure you didn't have any magical object on you at the time?" he pressed. "Anything at all?"

"I don't…" Ginny trailed off as she realized what it was. And now that she thought about it, it was so obvious that she didn't know why she hadn't thought of it before.

"_The hourglass_!"

She fumbled frantically with the front of her robes and pulled out the chain, suspending it between her and Blaise, examining it as it gently swayed from side to side.

"What's that?" Blaise asked immediately, striding over to examine it. "Where'd you get that?"

"From…McGonagall's office," Ginny said breathlessly. "She had confiscated it from Hermione Granger…"

"Is that a _time turner_?" Blaise asked incredulously. "I've read about those. They're supposed to be very rare, though. I don't see how a grade-school student could have one."

"Hermione was…_is_…special," Ginny said, studying it. She looked at Blaise. "How does it work?"

"I've never used one," he said. "I suppose you just put it on and spin it and it moves you to a different moment in time proportional to how it's handled."

"That's so risky!" Ginny exclaimed, shocked. "You could move anywhere by accident if you just shook it around!"

"I don't think it happens often," Blaise said, glancing at her. "Mostly only government officials can get their hands on these."

But Ginny had drifted into another tangent of thought.

"…does that mean that if you want to travel into the past, you can erase the events that happened since the present and the moment in the past you're travelling to?" she asked slowly.

"I doubt it," said Blaise pensively, still watching the chain warily. "At least if your appearance here has anything to say about it. I think it's more like…rewinding or fast-forwarding time. The same events still happen, but you can…alter them, I guess?"

Ginny shook her head vigorously. "But if you can alter events, doesn't that mean that the following future, which is really the past, changes?"

"I don't understand it either," said Blaise frankly. "Let's not mix ourselves up. But a _time turner_. Incredible."

Ginny pressed her lips together. "Lucky I ran into you, huh?" she said softly. "I might have just met any random person from the future."

"It's the present," said Blaise. "To me, _you're_ from the past."

"Whatever."

Ginny turned this new information over in her head, not realizing that Blaise had just said that as playful banter.

"So…" she tried to piece it all together in her head. "So, somehow in our scuffle…I guess the time turner got spun…maybe as I fell…and now I'm here."

It sounded ridiculous, even as Ginny said it. She couldn't help but scoff a little at the thought, amused for the first time. "Who would've thought? A nasty shove from a jerk like you were…"

Blaise shrugged. "You had just gone alone into the forest. You hadn't told me anything about it. I was angry and scared."

"Scared?"

"Well, yeah," Blaise looked at her in surprise. "You could have died. I mean, I'm in love with you, after all."

It took about twenty seconds for these words to register in Ginny's head.

"_What?_"

She rapidly backed away several steps, drawing her wand as she did so. Why had he suddenly turned into a creeper? Was this a trap?

Blaise however, made no move towards her, merely regarded her with a look of soft respect and…was it _affection? _

"What are you talking about?" Ginny asked nervously. "Blaise, I—_you_—hate me! You're always trying to hurt me! You don't love me!"

"I can assure you, I do," Blaise said conversationally, as though they were discussing the weather. "I…wasn't good at expressing myself when I was younger. But I can promise you, that as of seventeen years old, I am in love with you, Ginny."

"That's—that's—" Ginny couldn't even find the words as a blush rose in her face. It was beyond ridiculous—it was a lie.

"Ginny," Blaise looked at her seriously. "Don't be scared of me, now. Don't avoid me. I just loved you then, that's all. That's why we had so many problems."

"But…" Ginny was running out of objections. She lowered her wand and looked at his face. He looked so damn…_sincere_.

"This is the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me," she said.

"Would it help if I seconded that?"

She smiled faintly with shaking lips.

"…"

"So what now?" she asked, feeling very awkward.

But Blaise had stopped listening to her. He had tensed again, listening intently. He hurried to the entrance of the cave and stood still. Ginny heard it, too this time. Sirens.

"You should go," he said hurriedly. "They're doing rounds now. They'll find you—"

"Why am I any more susceptible than you?" Ginny asked, nonplussed.

"Shh—just go! You can come back some other time, but not now! It's a Sunday, for Gods sake—go away!"

"Blaise…" she looked at him sadly. "I need to see you again! I need to know what went wrong, how it all happened at Hogwarts. Can I come back again?"

"Yes, some other time, just not a Sunday!" Blaise said. He put his hand on her head. "Listen, just work as hard as you can in the defense club and don't be too hard on me!"

"_Me_ be hard on you?" Ginny asked in astonishment. "_You're_ the difficult one—"

"Just go!" he said forcefully, touching her cheek.

Angry at being pushed out, for whatever the reason, Ginny threw the chain over her neck. She looked down at it.

"I don't know what I did the first time," she said. Intuition told her that turning it backwards ought to rewind the time she had skipped. It was still a shot in the dark, but a decent on.

She hastily spun it backwards several times, and saw Blaise looking at her with that strange expression of worry and nostalgia for a last time before all the colors melted together and the screeching of the siren funneled away into a blur.

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	7. Nott Unexpected

**The Hourglass:** Chapter 7

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Ginny had long since stopped trying to make out specific shapes from the blend of colors around her. It was too much like trying to watch the blades of a moving fan: she could only focus on the motion of a form for about a second before it started making her feel dizzy and sick.

The spinning and churning probably lasted for a full three minutes: then it seemed to slow down like a rewinding film reaching the beginning and caught itself in a graceful, smooth finish. Ginny felt surprisingly normal when she uncertainly opened her eyes to find that she was alone and right where she had been before spinning the hourglass. She had somehow been expecting to have time-travel sickness.

Gazing around her, she saw that the cave indeed looked a little younger than it had when she had been with Blaise: there were no plants growing by the entrance and though the walls were damp, they were quite smooth and stalagmite-free. However, when exactly in the past—argh—_present_, was she?

Cautiously, Ginny made her way out of the cave and stood on the landing just outside, feeling the warm sunshine over head. Stepping onto a ledge, she squinted down and out at Hogsmead. There were people in sight, milling about, doing shopping! Moreover, the shining sun had to mean that the dementors had not yet invaded, so she had clearly gone back quite far in time. But _when_ was she, exactly?

She was about to leave when she paused and turned to look at the cave. There were many more like it. Should she mark this one…?

That was ridiculous. What was she supposed to do? Write on it with a quill? Ginny walked about slowly before an idea came to her. Moving to the front of the cave, she dug a small hole in the loose dirt. When it was about six inches deep, she felt through her pockets for something, anything. The first thing she found was a bronze knut and she dropped it into the hole, covering it up with dirt. This way, when she came back, she could summon the knut and thus know which cave to enter….

She straightened up, wiping the dirt off her hands and stowing her wand.

Ginny also hid the hourglass down the front of her robes, figuring that it wouldn't be the best thing to be caught with at this moment, and started to hike slowly down the hill. She would have to practice precise time-folding with the hourglass, that much was evident.

From up close, the village was clearly alive. Unconcerned chattering filled the air as adults and students went blithely about their daily lives, unknowing and unconcerned about the future of this village. Ginny kept close to the buildings, walking in shadow and trying not to be noticed, for if she had somehow rewound back to first year or something, then things could get awkward.

Seeing a group of Ravenclaws that she half-recognized pass, Ginny gained some confidence. Whenever she was, it must be in the general vicinity of the time period she had left…

Then, coming out of Honeydukes from the distance, Ginny caught sight of a few forms, and almost didn't dare trust her eyes.

"Luna? Neville?" Ginny couldn't believe her luck. She made out towards them at a brisk pace, sincerely hoping that this wouldn't scare them. However, once she got within three meters, it was Neville who dropped the bag he was holding, but neglected it and sprinted to Ginny, closely followed by Luna.

"Neville, Luna, I—"

"Ginny?! Where have you _been_?" Neville interrupted in a shout, his voice cracking with disbelief and relief. "I—we—" he struggled with words. "What happened? Where—where _were_ you?"

"Where was I…when?" Ginny asked nervously, really wishing she knew the date.

They both stared at her, shock written over their faces.

"For the past_….week_, maybe?" Luna finally broke in. "You didn't come back to the dormitory that night after we had the detention in the forest! We looked all over for you the next day and then we got really worried and asked Professor McGonagall—"

"—and she said she didn't know either, but that you must be around school somewhere—" Neville interjected.

"—and when you didn't show up the next two days either and we reported it, there was a search of the entire school and the whole grounds—"

"What, Snape ordered that?" Ginny asked, unable to believe that Snape would care enough.

"No, no, Snape isn't at Hogwarts; he left on a trip again—" Luna said breathlessly. "—McGonagall's been running the whole thing, but we couldn't find you—"

"Well, what happened?" Neville pressed. "Were you in Hogsmead this whole time? We didn't search Hogsmead that thoroughly…" he admitted.

"I—guys…" Ginny didn't know where to begin. She didn't want to lie to them, but obviously telling them the truth was out of the question.

"Guys, I'm…really tired. Can we go back to school?" Ginny finally asked rather lamely. "I don't really know how to explain this right now…"

"Of course," Luna immediately went to Ginny's side and held onto her elbow as though afraid Ginny might faint at any moment. "Who knows what she's been through, Neville?" she said, making a motion that Neville, who was standing there looking displeased with this answer, should do the same. "C'mon, let's take her up to school…"

Ginny allowed herself to be led, half-dragged to the carriage station at the outskirts of Hogsmead and loaded into one for the trip back.

"We'll take you to Madame Pomfrey once we get back to the castle," Luna said reassuringly, once the carriage had started to move.

"I don't want…I don't need…" Ginny suddenly felt very tired. "I don't need to see her."

Neville made a noise of disbelief, but Luna presumably shushed him because he didn't say anything. Ginny's eyes began to droop.

"But you know, we really were worried…" she heard Luna say, as if from far away. "You've been off somewhere for almost a full week and we couldn't contact you at all, through owl or anything else…"

"We were really scared," Neville said.

"Yeah, that's why you guys were candy-shopping in Hogsmead, right?" Ginny joked weakly, and heard their nervously humorous protests before she suddenly found herself unable to keep her eyelids open and her mind on the present moment.

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When she woke up, Ginny found herself in the merciful comfort of the hospital wing bathed in warm torchlight and in a soft bed. Cautiously, she raised her head a few inches and looked about. There were a few people in beds on the other side of the room, but couldn't make out any faces. She mentally groaned as Madame Pomfrey became aware of Ginny's consciousness and immediately bustled over to check her temperature and started griping about reckless behavior.

Ginny protested and sat up, feeling more or less normal, if a little clammy.

"Honestly, I'm fine—I want to go back to my dormitory," she said as Madame Pomfrey peered into her eyes and felt her pulse.

"—welts still haven't healed—"

Ginny looked down at her arms and saw that Madame Pomfrey was right, though it was only because everyone seemed to think she had gotten the welts a week ago when in fact she had had them less than a day.

"They don't hurt," Ginny said automatically, pulling her sleeves down and getting out of the bed. "I think they're getting better; I can go back now—"

"Well, have some chocolate at least," Madame Pomfrey insisted, hurrying off while Ginny sighed in mild irritation.

The door opened. Ginny looked up, expecting to see one of her friends, but it was Professor McGonagall who entered and swept over to Ginny, looking worried.

"Mr. Longbottom and Miss Lovegood informed me of the situation immediately after dropping you off here," McGonagall said in response to the questioning look on Ginny's face. "Are you feeling all right?"

Ginny nodded as she accepted the chocolate from Madame Pomfrey. Professor McGonagall, looking mildly appeased by Ginny's motor skills, asked the nurse if Ginny could come down to her office. Madame Pomfrey did not look pleased, but she allowed it and Ginny carefully followed McGonagall out of the hospital wing, very nervous about what this conversation was going to be like.

McGonagall sat down behind her desk and Ginny followed suit. After a moment, she took a bite of the chocolate so as to have something to do. She was avoiding looking McGonagall in the eye, afraid that she might spill everything if she did.

McGonagall was quiet for a few moments waiting for Ginny to swallow before saying, "I trust that your friends told you what has happened at this school since you were away."

Ginny nodded dumbly.

"We searched for three days the entire grounds of Hogwarts and the village of Hogsmead."

Another nod.

"Miss Weasley…" McGonagall sighed, as if she already knew the answer to the question she was about to ask, but had to pose it out of formality. "Can you tell me where you were this past week? Do you _know_ where you were?"

Ginny shifted, uncomfortable by the motherly way McGonagall was regarding her. It would have been better if McGonagall was angry. It wasn't helping that the truth of all this was hanging just under the front of her robes and that she had stolen that object from this very office.

"I…don't." she finally replied with a controlled effort. She looked up. "I can't remember anything of this last week," she replied honestly. "I don't know what happened at all."

McGonagall looked at her for a few more seconds and Ginny thought she was going to say she didn't believe her, but surprisingly, McGonagall nodded.

"I suspected as much," McGonagall said gravely.

Ginny started. "_Suspected?_" she asked incredulously. It seemed like the utterly wrong word.

McGonagall looked up, her glasses flashing in the lamplight. "You had been informed about this week, I thought?" she said.

"About the search for me…?"

"And about the incident at the school!" McGonagall said deliberately. "Didn't your friends tell you?"

"No! What happened?" Ginny said nervously. And before she could help herself, she was thinking, _please don't let it be Blaise…._

"I suppose they didn't want to worry you right after finding you again," McGonagall said, almost to herself. There was a pause. "Miss Weasley, a certain student who has been attending this school for years woke up a few days ago not knowing where or who he was. He was transferred to St. Mungo's just this morning."

"Who?" Ginny asked, dreading the answer.

"Theodore Nott."

"Oh." Ginny leaned back a little, relieved, but immediately felt ashamed of her relief. He was a member of their defense club! "And…no one knows what happened? Haven't we made an effort to solve the mystery?"

McGonagall shook her head. "I made an announcement about it to the school this morning, so I thought you should know as well," she said grimly. "It's in St. Mungo's hands now."

Something in her tone made Ginny nervous. "Did someone modify his memory?" Ginny asked slowly. "Or is it something else?"

McGonagall didn't reply right away. "It would have to have been a very powerful memory charm if that was the case," she finally replied. "I doubt any person in this school could have performed it."

"…do you suspect outside involvement?" Ginny ventured, reading McGonagall's eyes.

McGonagall flinched slightly, and straightened her glasses. "That will do, Miss Weasley," she said in response. "Such a thing cannot be proved and this is not the right place to discuss it, anyhow." She paused, looking troubled. "This isn't quite the same thing as with you, however. You are not having long-term memory difficulties....I don't know whether we can reasonably draw a connection between these incidences or not. I brought it up because it seems to relate to your condition."

"Oh…yeah." Ginny had almost forgotten that she herself was under suspicion. What on earth had happened at Hogwarts while she was gone? Ginny realized that McGonagall had started speaking again, and dragged her attention back.

"I'm sorry?"

"Do you feel well enough to start classes again tomorrow?" McGonagall repeated.

"Yes, I feel fine," said Ginny.

"Good." McGonagall's voice took on a slightly more business-like tone. Madame Pomfrey ran some tests on you while you were out. Your body seems to be in normal health…You will continue school from tomorrow."

"Really?" Again, Ginny was astonished by her good fortune. They were going to let her 'I don't know what happened' excuse slide? She wasn't going to be questioned anymore?

Some of her thoughts must have shown on her face, for McGonagall added seriously, "Miss Weasley, I suspect foul play at Hogwarts. I speak to you frankly now. We don't know what will happen to Mr. Nott and many students are ill at ease. Although you seem to have made it back fine, I ask that you don't provoke your peers with stories."

"I wouldn't do that," Ginny said in astonishment, but McGonagall shook her head.

"It's better if you don't tell many people about this…occurrence," said McGonagall slowly, as if not happy with that word. "You may tell your friends that you were called away on emergency family business."

This was really strange. The way McGonagall was helping Ginny cover up her bizarre story seemed unbelievably out of character. It was almost as if McGonagall knew the truth. Either that, or she simply didn't want it to become big news outside of Hogwarts.

"Did the Ministry know I had gone missing?" Ginny asked, as something suddenly clicked into place.

McGonagall eyed her beadily. "No."

"But they heard about Nott?"

"There was no choice, as he had to be transferred. They've kept a closer eye on the school since then. There has even been talk of stationing dementors as guards—in the case that there was outside involvement."

Ah. That explained something, at least. Without Snape here, McGonagall wanted to keep the news of Ginny's escapade away from the Ministry of Magic, and not risk repercussions that would affect the whole school.

"If you don't have any other questions, you're dismissed." McGonagall said finally.

Ginny nodded and they both got up.

"About Nott…" Ginny said as she reached the door. "Do you think he'll be able to come back anytime soon?"

McGonagall looked grim. "I really couldn't say."

**XxXxXxXx**

Nott gone? What had happened while Ginny had been away?

She lay on her bed, having the rest of the afternoon off from classes. Clearly, McGonagall seemed to think that it had something to do with people outside of Hogwarts. Death Eaters, perhaps? It did not seem particularly likely, especially considering that Nott's father was a Death Eater himself, but then again, Theodore had always come off as morally ambiguous… Ginny almost wished she could move the time turner back one more week so that she could avoid all questioning and maybe discover what had happened to Nott, but the fact of the matter was that she wasn't confident in her ability to gauge the time-turn proportion. She ultimately decided against it, not wanting to mess up the turning and end up fifty years in the past by mistake.

And a week off wasn't bad at all. It was just annoying that something had happened precisely when she was out of commission. As if it was planned...

The only thing Ginny was sure of was that they had to have a meeting of the defense club as soon as possible. They were sure to have some ideas on this matter. She wondered what the members of the club had thought about her absence, or if they had noticed at all. After all, besides the Gryffindors, most of the members weren't accustomed to seeing her every day and it wasn't altogether uncommon to go a week without seeing them at all. McGonagall hadn't really made it clear whether the search for Ginny had been announced to the school or not. She rolled over, trying to get to sleep, but unable to find any.

XxX

The first day back seemed like a dream, as if Ginny had forgotten what life at Hogwarts was like. She got asked so many times where she had been that Ginny wished she could just get robes that said "family emergency" on the front.

Then of course, Blaise had cornered her almost immediately after breakfast the next day, before she could even get out of the Great Hall.

She felt as though she hadn't spoken to him in a very long time, which was ironic considering that her escapade had been with him. The words that the other Blaise had told Ginny flashed into her head the moment she saw him, but when he started to speak, it was pushed from her mind.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Yes, good morning. Fine," Ginny replied, a little affronted by him manner, even if it was out of "concern" or whatever.

"You've been missing for a week!" he snapped, apparently not in the mood for pleasantries or anything of the like. "McGonagall didn't announce it, but there were searches going on, you could tell. And you weren't anywhere to be found."

"Yeah, I…erm…"

This was going to sound really strange. Somehow, she felt that she should be able to tell _him_, of all people, the truth since she had been away with him…but on the other hand, it wasn't like he would believe her anyway. She looked away.

"I got called away in the night a week ago," she finally said tonelessly. "There was an emergency in my family."

She was a very bad liar whenever it came to Blaise. Probably also partially because the truth had to do with him.

He gave her a look that made it plain he didn't believe her. "McGonagall would have told me that if that was the case," Blaise pointed out coldly.

"It was personal!" Ginny said, trying to get off this topic as fast as possible. "McGonagall would have no business telling you about my family problems. I can see why she didn't make an announcement."

Blaise opened his mouth like he was going to contradict this statement, but he paused for a millisecond, perhaps because this actually sounded plausible. Ginny took full advantage of his moment of hesitation to change the subject.

"I'm sorry I didn't warn you first, but it was really sudden. I assume there haven't been club meetings since; we should schedule one for soon."

Blaise did not look particularly convinced, but he dropped the subject, perhaps taking a leap of faith in Ginny's word. He also seemed to remember that a week ago, he had been quite upset with Ginny, because his manner suddenly stiffened.

"Yeah, you can choose the time. Send me an owl if you decide when you want to meet. Or don't. I can just walk in to the Room of Requirement each day this week and hope that I manage to catch you at it."

She sighed angrily. He was still angry that she hadn't told him about the detention. "How does Wednesday at nine work?"

"Yeah, fine. Whatever," he started to walk away.

"Everything's fine after all, so you're back to being a jerk, is it?" she called after him, causing a few people to look around in confusion. He didn't even say anything.

_In love, like hell._ Ginny strode away, trying not to let the meeting put her in bad mood. The other Blaise clearly didn't remember what he had been like when he was seventeen. Understandable, considering how much he had been through since then, but still.

It was Blaise's attitude that grated upon her the most. How he felt _entitled_ to everything. Like Ginny should be following him around with a notepad writing and sending memos every time she decided to take a bath or something.

She sighed and tried to think of something else. She had three full school days to focus on before she would have to see him again. That was something, at least.

* * *

a/n

Ah, don't you wish that we had magical chocolate to fix our sicknesses?


	8. The Legilimens

The Hourglass: Chapter 8

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"It's defined as 'the art of extracting memories and emotions from the subconscious of another person without their consent'," Ginny read, squinting as she moved her finger across the impossibly fine print of the library book.

"Helpful."

"Well, what do you want?"

"Maybe some instructions on how to _do_ it?"

Blaise and Ginny sat in the corner of the Room of Requirement with fifteen minutes to go before the defense meeting started. Ginny had intended to start Occlumency with the club this week, but it was proving to be a far more difficult lesson than she had originally thought. Mostly, it hadn't really occurred to Ginny that either she or Blaise would have to learn Legilimency—how else would they be able to test the students? She had only realized this fact a few nights ago when reading up on teaching material and had contacted Blaise the next morning. They had spent the last few days researching in the library. Most of the books containing any specifics about this branch of magic were under the restricted section, but Blaise, being seventeen, had access to them, so he borrowed as many that pertained to the subject as the library had.

Feverishly looking for information, Blaise and Ginny had sort of called an unspoken truce regarding their rocky relationship—meaning that neither of them brought up their fight and they just pretended it hadn't happened. Things were still a little awkward between them—especially for Ginny, who was always nervously juggling the other Blaise's words in the back of her mind, but generally it was tolerable.

"Maybe we should just call this whole thing off," Ginny said tiredly, rubbing her eyes that were starting to sting. "I didn't realize that _we_ had to become Legilimens to allow the rest to practice Occlumency."

"Giving up already?" Blaise asked, eyes pasted to another book. "This was your idea; I'd have thought that you would support it more." Blaise's attitude was steadily improving—at least he seemed to have gotten over some of his anger. The last few days in the library had done them both well; he had calmed down a great deal.

"I don't want to give up, but maybe it's just not _do_able!" Ginny said in mild frustration. "At least not in this lesson; we're not ready!"

"We could just have them practice Occlumency independently," Blaise pointed out.

"That might work for now but in the long run they won't really understand it without being tested. There's no getting around it: we _have_ to learn Legilimency!"

"Yeah. Or we could just shove a bottle of Veritaserum down their throats and have them fight that instead," Blaise said in a deadpan voice, flipping the page. "It would have the same effect, wouldn't it?"

A strange desire to laugh arrested Ginny, but she pressed her lips together and averted her eyes so he wouldn't see. She wasn't even sure if Blaise had meant it as a joke; it was difficult to tell between his sarcasm and seriousness sometimes.

"The two magics don't seem very different," Blaise finally said, tracing some of the notes that he and Ginny had taken on Legilimency and Occlumency. "Both require complete focus and clearing of the minds, according to this book."

"Then could we maybe have them meditate for practice?" Ginny asked, frowning.

"It might not go amiss," Blaise said, shrugging. "I don't know what you had in mind, or what your sources are, but it seems like the idea is to transcend your mind."

Ginny thought back to the summer with Harry and wished that she had asked him more about this. Harry had never been much of an Occlumens, she knew, but he surely would have had some tips.

"I think some people are going to be displeased if the defense lesson for today is meditation," said Ginny flatly.

"Who gives a damn what they think?" Blaise said unconcernedly. "We never said that we would teach a new spell at each meeting. If they don't like it, they can leave."

In truth, it was some of the cockier Slytherins that Ginny had been thinking of as she said that, but Blaise didn't seem to have picked up on this.

"But getting back to Legilimency," Ginny said. "The incantation is just 'legilimens'. And then it says you just…relax your mind and let their feelings become your feelings."

There was a pause.

"Oh_, that_ clears it up." Blaise said sarcastically. "Just let your brains meld with their brains. Perfect. I get it now." He shook his head at the confusing instructions and this time Ginny couldn't suppress the snort.

"I know. I think it's probably the sort of thing you only learn by doing it—"

Ginny interrupted herself as both of them heard a knock at the door. They froze. No one knocked. If it was a club member, they would just walk in…

After about thirty seconds of silence, Blaise got up and slunk over to the door, silently drawing his wand. He cautiously opened it and looked outside. After a long pause, he closed the door again and returned to the table.

"What happened?" Ginny asked in a hushed voice, although she knew that no one outside the room could possibly hear.

"No one was there," Blaise replied. He seemed uneasy. At least, he didn't seem openly arrogant, so that probably meant he was nervous.

Ginny kept her eyes on the door. She wouldn't let this happen again, if that's what this was, not again…

"What were you saying?" Blaise tried to prompt her.

"I…" Ginny shook her head, having lost her train of thought and feeling on edge. "Sorry. I mean, I doubt that Legilimency is something that you can learn out of a book."

Before Blaise could say anything though, the door opened for real and in walked the earliest club members.

"Oh, thank God," Ginny muttered, standing up. "Was it you guys at the door just a moment ago?"

The group of Hufflepuffs that had just entered looked at one another. "No…"

"Oh." Ginny's hope deflated.

"What happened?" one of them asked.

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's probably nothing." Ginny said, waving her hand and carefully avoiding looking at Blaise while she said it. "Take a seat."

XxX

When the rest of the club members had arrived, Ginny clapped her hands to get their attention. She was becoming better at demanding authority.

"Okay!" she said when they fell silent. "Now, I know we said last week that we would start Occlumency—"

There were some disappointed titters as they guessed her next words.

"—but I'm not sure we're ready for a hands on lesson just yet."

"Why not?" one of the younger members boldly asked. "We've spent ages on silent spells!"

"That's not the point." Ginny said. "We—I mean to say, Blaise and I—have to master Legilimency before we can practice on you to any real effect."

There were more tuts and noises of disappointment.

"Until then," Blaise suddenly cut in, perhaps getting annoyed with their behavior, for he was rather short tempered with students, "we can study and practice the theory."

"Theory?" they sounded a little skeptical.

"The idea of Occlumency is that you protect your mind from unwanted invasion," Ginny explained. "It's a really subtle branch of magic, entirely involving control of the mind. I think books won't take you far with it. There's no…incantation or anything of that sort."

"No incantation?" Lavender broke in this time. "Then how are you supposed to _do_ it, let alone teach it?"

Ginny smiled ruefully, recognizing her very own thoughts coming from Lavender's mouth. Blaise spoke.

"Everyone, close your eyes."

They looked around confusedly. No one moved.

"Come on, we're not going to jinx you when you're not expecting it," Blaise said impatiently. "Just do it."

Gradually, after much glancing around, they closed their eyes.

"Now…we're going to practice clearing our minds. Letting go of any stray thoughts." Ginny said into the silence. "It's just like meditation. The same concentration is required."

They practiced meditation for only fifteen minutes. For one thing, it was surprisingly difficult to stay focused and silent in a room full of classmates for more than a minute—often, one of the younger students would start giggling. In the silence, Ginny found her own mind wandering and buzzing with irrelevant questions and idle thoughts, and this had been _her_ suggestion. She could only speculate as to how the rest were faring.

For another thing, more skeptical members like Terry Boot and Zacharias Smith seemed to think that it was all nonsense to practice meditation and though they didn't have the nerve to leave, it was difficult to keep the lesson going being aware of their increasing frustration. Ginny called it off when she felt they had gotten as much from the lesson as they could.

"Until next week, practice on your own time," she instructed. "Before bed, during a boring lecture, whatever. Next time we'll try it hands on, I promise. For now let's review from last week instead."

They spent the rest of the time working on review spells in view of the relative failure of the Occlumency lesson.

XxX

"That didn't go well at all," Ginny muttered to Blaise after the meeting, letting Neville and Luna leave without her once again. "I felt like a yoga teacher. Let's start practicing Legilimency right now; I don't want this to happen next week."

Blaise nodded, serious for once. "Fine. I have until ten."

They ushered the rest of the members out of the Room of Requirement, and Ginny swept the tables and chairs out of the way in order to clear a working space.

"Do we really know what we're doing?" Blaise asked as he straightened up the bookshelf.

"Attempting to attack each other's minds, essentially." Ginny said firmly, rolling up her sleeves. "I think we've gotten all the help out of books that we can. We just have to try it."

Blaise put the last book away and walked over, facing Ginny directly. He pulled out his wand, and Ginny felt as though they were getting ready for a duel.

"…So," she said, suddenly a little nervous at the thought of Blaise being like an opponent. "Do you want to try it first?"

He shrugged. "Sure."

"Alright, then." Her heart started to beat faster and she wasn't sure why. Probably just because it was a completely unknown magic to both of them and she didn't know what the result would be.

"I'll try to make it easy since it's the first time," she said. "I mean, I won't attempt to clear my mind or anything."

Blaise nodded, raising his wand and looking directly into her eyes with a gaze that made her feel he was already seeing into her mind. She averted her eyes.

"_Legilimens!_"

She heard the incantation, but felt nothing immediately. There was a long pause.

Ginny looked at Blaise and saw that his eyes were closed, as if _he_ were meditating. After another moment, Blaise's eyes flickered open as well. "Did anything happen?"

"No," said Ginny.

"Oh." He stood still, presumably a little surprised that he hadn't gotten it on the first try.

"…I don't think _you're_ supposed to close your eyes," Ginny put forward. "The person doing Legilimency should maintain eye contact."

"Fine, then why don't you try it?" he retaliated.

"I will," she said a little irately. "Don't clear your mind, let me have a shot."

"It's all yours," he said, folding his arms.

She frowned, focusing on his face and trying to relax her own mind. She imagined her thoughts streaming out of her head like a waterfall and into Blaise's, co-mingling.

"_Legilimens!_"

After uttering this, Ginny felt a strange sensation in her forehead, rather like a head rush, but nothing happened.

Silence.

"Not as easy as it looks, huh?" Blaise asked, a touch of smugness in his voice.

"I thought I felt something in my head," Ginny said, touching her temples gingerly before looking at him. "But no, I didn't see anything."

Blaise looked surprised and a little displeased by her claim. He uncrossed his arms. "Let me try again."

They went back and forth for almost half an hour with little result. Ginny's head rushes were getting stronger, accompanied by a feeling of disorientation, but Blaise wasn't making any progress at all. It wasn't until almost ten o'clock that Ginny really got somewhere.

"I heard something that time!" she exclaimed excitedly when she lifted the spell, staggering a step back in dizziness and holding out her arm. "It was just like a rushing noise…but I thought I heard something!"

"Is that so?" Blaise looked somewhat sour, probably because this was the first time Ginny had been so much faster to learn a spell than he. "We should stop soon; I'm starting to get a headache. You don't look too good, either."

"Well, let's try it one more time, in any case!" said Ginny hastily, though he was right. "I seriously think I almost had it that time—just once more!"

Blaise was hesitant, but at Ginny's tone and determination he slowly rolled up his sleeves and shook his head. "Fine. One more shot."

"Look at me." Ginny requested as Blaise started to cast his eyes to the ground. "It's a lot easier if you look at me."

He reluctantly lifted his eyes, dark with some unnamed emotion.

Ginny sucked in a deep breath and focused on his eyes. She tried to subdue her own mind, restless with excitement at the progress she had made. Ginny had found a particular tactic that was helpful was to imagine a diamond between Blaise's eyes. Like a sliver of a window through which she could see into his thoughts. She focused on that spot between his eyes and raised her wand.

"_Legilimens!_"

Again, the odd feeling of dizziness and confusion filled her head; she could only imagine what this must feel like to Blaise. Her own thoughts of family and Harry and the old Blaise rose to the surface of her thoughts like bubbles in hot water, but she suppressed them, trying to make the diamond between Blaise's eyes grow clearer.

And then quite suddenly, like a lens snapping into focus, Ginny could make out shapes. They were fuzzy, like a television with poor signal, but the colors were definite. Trains of thought that did not belong to Ginny suddenly flooded her mind.

In her head she saw a swarthy young boy, perhaps only five years old, sitting on the end of a magnificent bed. He was nervously watching a beautiful woman who was applying bright red lipstick in front of a mirror and smiling at him in the reflection— then suddenly the image was replaced by another woman, this time plump and pale who was hugging a gangly child as he levitated a spoon—then abruptly Theodore Nott's face swam into view, his eyes dazed and fearful, but strangely illuminated by the light of a fireplace in a large, somber room—

"STOP!"

Ginny felt as though she had been stung sharply in the wrist: a jolt convulsed through her arm and she dropped her wand. Her mind went utterly blank for a few moments.

When she cautiously opened her eyes, she was surprised to find that she was on her knees, holding her wrist, which was throbbing. Blaise was backed up several feet from where he had been, gripping the side of the bookshelf with one hand for support, his other arm at his side limply holding his wand. Ginny noticed that he seemed to be shaking.

"…what _was_ that?" Ginny finally asked, getting back to her feet, still rubbing her arm, a little shocked. "Did you jinx me or something?"

"I…didn't mean to." It was the first time Ginny had ever heard Blaise sound anything but confident and self-assured. His voice was distant. "I don't know what happened. I didn't actually try to do a spell…I think I might have cast a silent one on accident, though."

Ginny frowned, thinking over the surge of memories that had flooded her mind. "What did that feel like for you?"

He didn't say anything for a moment, taking his hand off the bookshelf and steadying himself.

"Weird," he said frankly, unable to come up with a better word. "It was just like…rewinding through memories. It wasn't pleasant," he added.

Ginny looked down, pretending to smooth her sleeves. She was a little embarrassed to ask what she had witnessed, and he didn't offer any explanation.

"Well, I guess that was progress," Ginny said at last. "I mean, that was the first time I saw anything at all—"

He looked at her sharply, narrowing his eyes. "What did you see?" he demanded.

"…nothing really." Ginny said, a little taken aback by his hostility. "It goes so fast; they're only flashes for about a second each…"

That was only half-true. Ginny was grateful that Blaise hadn't been able to perform the Legilimency himself. He just stood there and Ginny's toes started to curl at the awkward silence.

"Shall we try it again?" she asked timidly.

"I think that's enough for tonight," he said, slowly stowing away his wand. "We have a start; we can practice more later. At least this should help with the lessons."

"Right," Ginny said hurriedly, not wanting to press the matter, at least not when Blaise seemed to be in such an odd mood. "Let's close up, then."

They restored all the rest of the scattered materials and extinguished the torches in silence, rather hastily because of the heavy silence.

"I'll be in contact…" Ginny muttered, going the opposite direction from him the moment they left the Room of Requirement. "I'll…see you around…"

They parted awkwardly and Ginny walked quickly to the Gryffindor common room. She was terribly curious about what she had witnessed concerning Nott. It looked like Nott had been imploring Blaise in some regard, or maybe even confiding in him. Was it possible that Blaise had some information about the disappearance of Nott that he was keeping from Ginny? Or was the memory merely there because Blaise was brooding on his recently-deported friend? And what of the woman in the mirror? Could that have been Blaise's mother?

Ginny pondered all this, nearly walking straight past the portrait of the fat lady in her reverie.

She had wanted very much to ask Blaise about it, but he was unlikely to tell her anything, she thought as she climbed through the portrait hole and headed up to bed. Especially considering how protective this Blaise seemed to be of his memories. Perhaps this would be a good question to add to her list to ask the other Blaise....

Ginny fluffed up the pillow and climbed into bed ten minutes later. Legilimency was troubling; not just because it left you so curious and headsore, but because relaxing enough to see into someone's mind left your _own_ mind vulnerable.

Moreover, Ginny had realized, it had been specifically challenging to think of nothing when looking straight into Blaise's mysterious eyes. If people had qualities that elicited emotional responses in others, it could be very difficult t to clear the mind when looking at them. With a jolt, Ginny suddenly wondered if this was the reason that Blaise was having so much difficulty with the spell.

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A/N

Heh...this chapter is full of innuendos, some more subtle than others.


	9. Cave Heart

**The Hourglass: Chapter 9 **(I'm going to go back later and think of more creative titles)

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Ginny had trouble thinking of anything else but Blaise over the next few days. She was aware that she was rapidly becoming obsessed, but that didn't make it any easier to remove him from her mind.

He knew something, Ginny was sure of it. They met to practice Legilimency twice over the next few days and while Blaise was still unable to perform the spell at all, only working himself into a state of frustration and mental shakiness, Ginny gradually began to amass a picture of Blaise's thoughts, which were mostly centered on Nott or else people that Ginny didn't recognize.

Actually, it seemed that Blaise was a much better hand at Occlumency, for he was able to shut Ginny out fairly effectively when he truly focused. Ginny could tell that Blaise was trying to keep certain thoughts from her, which was was irritating, but she couldn't really blame him. If anything the other Blaise had said was true, then it was hardly surprising that Blaise was protective of his thoughts around Ginny.

In general though, the study of mind-magic did change the structure of the defense club. Ginny took over the Legilimency sector while Blaise did instruction in Occlumency. Only a few lessons had passed this way, and no one seemed to be making much progress, but Ginny couldn't help but feel that it was important to keep trying. If she couldn't force the members to be friends, then at least they could learn about each other by attacking their minds.

When she was not thinking about the present-day-Blaise, Ginny brooded on the older Blaise. She had so many questions for him that the desire to meet him again was becoming overwhelming. It was clear that young Blaise wasn't going to tell Ginny much about his past or why he was dwelling on Nott. And Ginny felt that these were key point she was missing. Over the next week, she began thinking of how she could plan to see old Blaise again.

The main issue was that she didn't want to miss another week or more of school; it was important to try to return to Hogwarts as close to the time she had left as possible. She had begun to realize how the time turner worked a little: it was as Blaise said, simply like fast forwarding through a movie and being dropped off in an instant. The actions she took while time-travelling definitely put a ripple in the course of events, yet it didn't seem that she could change anything big. That was what confused her. By meeting Blaise in the future, hadn't she somehow created an alternate universe that included a scene which in all probability never should have happened? It made her head spin to try to think about it. Ginny settled for the knowledge that if Hermione had once used the time turner, then it couldn't be terribly universe-altering.

Nevertheless, Ginny felt nervous as she lay in bed a week later, waiting for her dormitory mates to subside their tossing and turning, and for their breathing to slow to an even pace that would signify they were asleep.

She had decided that it would be best to try this exploit at night, since her body would not be missed as long as everyone was asleep and it gave her a cushion of several hours so that if she miscalculated on the way back, she might still arrive before morning.

Ginny also decided to travel directly from the dormitory because it would eliminate the need to break out of school at night, a feat she did not wish to attempt with dementors guarding the grounds. It would be much easier to break out in the future, when the school was desolate and abandoned.

Ginny repeated these details that she had worked out in her head many times to assure herself of the integrity of her plot. Vaguely, she wondered if she should have told Luna or Neville about it so that they could cover for her if she were absent again, but aside from the fact that she suspected they wouldn't approve of her adventures, Ginny was overtaken by the feeling that this was something she had to do alone.

The small wall clock in the dormitory chimed for midnight, and Ginny jerked a little, although she had been expecting it for a while. She rolled onto her back and listened intently. No sound but the gentle breathing of her friends and the soft rustling of wings outside met her ears. Slowly, afraid to make any much noise, Ginny secured the bed hangings around her and gingerly pulled the hourglass out from the front of her robes. Her mind cast about for a prayer, but she couldn't think of one, so she simply blew on the little hourglass once, and before she could change her mind, vigorously spun it around and around on the chain.

The effect was instantaneous. Like her last journey, the colors around her melted together and she felt that she was hurtling through an enormous Floo network made of hours and years until she came to a stop, a sudden jolt.

Ginny opened her eyes and cringed: she was still in bed and in the dark, but the bed hangings were so dusty that they ceased to be crimson at all; they appeared a sickly pinkish color. Majestic old cobwebs were stretched from the ceiling to the bedposts, and Ginny was grateful she didn't share Ron's irrational aversion to spiders.

Opening the hangings, Ginny coughed in the shower of dust and surveyed the room. The paned windows had been boarded up, but through the cracks, Ginny could see something that made her slightly worried: sunlight.

Was it right that there should be sunlight? If the dementors had moved in, then wouldn't the whole place be gray? Unless they hadn't come to Hogwarts yet…

Ginny hurried to leave Gryffindor tower, not particularly wanting to linger and observe the grayed common room or the empty portraits. She flew down the staircases into the Great Hall and headed to the front doors as she had done last time. But she stopped short before the front doors.

They were untouched. Perfectly intact from the inside: no hole from the Reductor curse. And that was wrong, Ginny realized. It meant something. It meant that wherever she was in time, and she couldn't be sure when that was, it was _before_ the time she had visited last time. She may not be off by much. It may only be a month before, or even a day before, but whenever she was, it was before last time. And that was a problem, Ginny realized.

She sank to her knees to think about it: she could break out of the castle as she had done last time—but then her future self would find a hole in the front doors when she tried to leave. Would that change things? Giving the matter some thought, Ginny suspected that it wouldn't change much, but it was probably still a good idea to repair the door after she broke out this time. The most pressing issue was one that she hadn't even considered before leaving: what about Blaise?

If she arrived even an_ hour_ before she had last time, Blaise wouldn't remember having met her before. Of course, this wasn't such a big deal since Ginny knew where he lived, but still, she was going to have to introduce herself and explain her appearance to him all over again. He wasn't going to know what they had talked about last time, because as far as he was concerned, last time hadn't _happened_ yet!

Ginny groaned and let her head drop into her hands, furious with herself for overlooking this intricate problem before leaving. She might have taken more care to go farther into the future if she had known. Even now, Ginny fingered the hourglass pensively and wondered if she should just go back and try again, but she didn't want to risk returning ruining it even more than she already had. She would just have to make do with where she was, Ginny decided. She stood up. After all, Blaise still _knew_ her, even if he didn't remember meeting her as a time-traveler.

With a new resolve, though still nervous about what was to happen, Ginny approached the front door again and pulled out her wand.

"_Reducto!_" she blasted a hole through the front door and the bits of wood boarding it up before forcing herself through.

From outside, Ginny could see that it was suspiciously bright. This made her nervous, wondering if she was really too close to her own time. But Hogwarts was boarded up, so it must be a good few years in the future…

Ginny hurriedly fixed the door behind her with a swipe of her wand and summoned a broomstick from the shed. Mounting it, she realized that she did not feel nearly as comfortably flying through the air in daylight as she had last time in the fog. Ginny cursed herself yet again, wishing she had an invisibility device of some sort. Next time she came, she was bringing one of Fred and George's invisibility hats.

She kicked off and soared towards the blur in the distance that was Hogsmeade.

Approaching it some minutes later, Ginny was relieved to find that as she came closer to the village, the sky grew darker and darker. Directly over Hogsmeade was full cloud cover and chilly mist.

Ginny sighed with relief. It was a little funny that she was relieved to know dementors were around, but it certainly meant that she was close to her target time.

Having no intention to brave the dementor-infested streets again, Ginny slithered through the air around the outskirts of the village and straight towards the rocky hills in the distance. She was a little surprised that there were no air patrols to spot her, but perhaps security just wasn't so tight at this moment. She kept close to the trees to reduce the chances of being spotted. When Ginny reached the hills, she landed about halfway up and began to walk, so that she could remember the path better.

Luckily, the face of the mountain had changed very little over the years, so Ginny was able to find the area that she thought was right without much difficulty. Standing before in the arena of caves, Ginny was at a loss until she remembered her Knut. Smiling a little at her own foresight, she closed her eyes and raised her wand.

"_Accio Knut!_"

There was a small noise like pebbles being kicked around, and then the Knut burst out of the ground in front of a cave down a path to her left. Ginny caught it neatly and put it in her pocket, reminding herself to bury it again when she left. It seemed that she was on mark, for an orange-ish flicker, something light firelight was coming from the cave. Ginny began to make her way toward it, but stopped. How would Blaise feel if a girl he hadn't seen for years suddenly burst into his secret home and claimed they had met in the future? He would probably attack her. Ginny could see only one option to her.

She stood against the rock, out of view of the cave, before making up her mind. She sidled towards the cave inch by inch and when right outside the entrance, she pulled out her wand and leapt inside.

"_Expelliarmus!_"

That was exactly the spell Ginny had been intending to cast, but she realized that it she had not been the one to say it.

Her wand flew out of her hand and she was thrown against the back wall of the cave by a dark figure.

"_Stupef_—"

"NO! Blaise, stop, it's me!" she shouted, holding up her hands.

The figure paused for a second. Then Ginny felt herself freeze up in a total body bind. She keeled over and the figure kneeled beside her and cautiously moved her hair out of her face to see better.

"_Ginny?_" his voice was incredulous, as Ginny had been expecting.

All at once, the body bind relaxed, and she slumped onto the floor, breath knocked out of her from the sudden action.

"Jeez, I was going to do that; how'd you know I was there anyway?" she asked breathlessly, pushing her hair out of her face and sitting up. "What year is it now?"

"…Ginny?" Clearly Blaise was still in shock and nothing else had registered.

Ginny sighed a little, wondering how to explain this all to him again.

"I know you must be confused," she said. "And I can explain, but you'll have to trust me."

"I trust you," he looked utterly perplexed.

"Then believe me when I say this," Ginny took a breath. "This is not the first time we've met since attending Hogwarts together. I found a time turner in McGonagall's office a couple of weeks ago and I've been using it to move in time," she pulled it out from the front of her robes as proof, and his eyes momentarily dropped from her face to examine it bemusedly. "I've met you before, on November 12, 2001 but I don't know if that's still going to happen since I've changed the future by coming here—" she cut herself off breathlessly and he put a hand up to silence her.

"Are you alright?" he asked, looking at her very seriously, as if she were on her deathbed. He seemed to be trying to look through her.

"What? Yes, I'm fine."

She considered this a very odd question for him to ask, of all things, considering that she had just reappeared to him after quite some time. But then again, the last Blaise had treated her as if she were fragile as well. Why was that…?

"Are you sure?" he reached forward like to touch her face, just the same way the other Blaise had, but she shifted away uncomfortably. "It's so strange to see you again," he said in distracted awe.

"What year is it, Blaise?" she asked, feeling wrong-footed by his manner.

"1998. April," he replied. "When was it you say you last saw me? 2001?"

Ginny's heart sank as she realized that her time-turning had been off by a good deal. "I meant to return to the same spot in time when I came to see you," she admitted. "I still can't control the time turner very well."

He shook his head. "This is really weird."

"I know," she said. "Will you take my word that we discussed this last time?"

He examined her with a look of slight sadness and confusion before nodding to the floor and standing up. "…I'm sorry about your wand," he said, handing it back to her. "I heard someone outside and it was automatic—"

"I know. I was going to disarm you first. I'm surprised you didn't Stun me right off the bat," she said.

"I heard you coming," he smiled wryly. "You should work on your stealth."

Blaise's manner was definitely different than it had been the last time she had seen him, Ginny decided. He didn't look _too_ different—his eyes had the same worried marks around them, but there was definitely something more…boyish about him. He was more nervous looking than the other Blaise had been and seemed to have less confidence. Yet he was undoubtedly gentler in manner than seventeen-year-old Blaise.

"Well, I don't have much here—but do you want something to drink?" he asked finally, shuffling away to give her some space. "I haven't said that for years," he added, shaking his head. "I suppose I told you about my life last time, but what about you? How old are you, exactly? When are you from?"

"It's our—_my _sixth year of Hogwarts," Ginny explained, relaxing a bit as he handed her a tall thin cup of some dark liquid she didn't recognize. It smelled good though, so she took a sip and was pleased to find that it warmed her rather like butterbeer. "Your seventh year. We're teaching Occlumency to the defense club—"

Blaise choked a little on his drink and Ginny saw that it was some sort of laugh, like a bitter amusement at remembering something sad. "Oh, yeah? And how's that going?"

"Well—" Ginny didn't want to tell him that it was making their relationship awkward, but then she remembered that Blaise already knew.

"I'm terrible at Legilimency, I know," he said, nodding at her silence. "Or I was. I'm not to bad at it now, really. You just—"

He cut himself off and Ginny frowned, wishing he would go on. This twenty-one-year-old Blaise was a bit more shy around her than the other one had been. Could it be that this one….still had feelings for her? Ginny felt a bit hot around the ears at the idea, but she didn't want to bring it up and make the situation worse.

"Well, is there any way I can help you?" she asked. "Because I'm really trying to learn Legilimency, but it's difficult with you as a partner."

He shrugged. "Try to make me lighten up."

"But how?"

"I don't know. Stop charming me."

"I don't _charm_ you!" she cried, blushing furiously, though glad that it was out in the open now, as Blaise laughed at the look on Ginny's face. "I really want you to be more open with me then! I know you know something about Nott, but you aren't telling me!"

"Nott?" Blaise's tone changed at the word. His face seemed to darken as he remembered. "Oh. So Nott's disappeared, then?"

"He has." Ginny leaned forward eagerly. "And you seem to know about it. Can't you tell me what it is?"

Blaise regarded her impassively, and set his cup down. He was quiet for a long time.

"I can," he said. "But I don't know if there's a point. You can't change it."

"Change _what?_" she cried.

"Listen, I just don't want to burden you with information about things you can't do anything about," he said frankly. "It's not too pleasant."

"Not too pleas—Blaise, look around you! Do you _like_ this world you're living in, swarming with dementors and Hogwarts abandoned?" she cried. "How am I going to change this if you won't help me?"

At least she had said it. It was the goal that had been timidly forming in Ginny's mind over the past week. If she could use future Blaise's knowledge of the Battle of Hogwarts combined with her ability to commute with the past, there was a chance she could—

"Stop the Battle of Hogwarts from happening." Blaise said rather tonelessly, looking at her. "That's what you want to do, isn't it?"

"I—you say that like it's a bad thing!" she accused. "Of course I want to stop it! Harry dies!"

He listened while tracing his mouth before standing up again. "I think you're getting the wrong impression about your time travel abilities, Ginny," he said softly.

"What do you mean?"

"You can alter events as they come to you—but what has to happen will happen. You can't defeat You-Know-Who with a time turner."

"Who said anything about defeating him? I just want to save as many people as possible."

Blaise flinched at that, and Ginny regarded him curiously, wondering why he was behaving like a kicked dog.

"Don't you even want to _try?_"

Blaise's less than enthusiastic reaction to Ginny's suggestion was bothering her. Young Blaise would have been all for it, she was sure. Why was this guy acting so cowardly, making out like everything was impossible? He seemed happy to see Ginny, but he simply didn't have the same drive as the 24-year-old Blaise.

"I don't want to make things worse than they are," Blaise said after a long pause.

"Do you really have so little faith in me—_us?_" she amended, feeling rather hurt by this comment. "We're stronger than you think. But I can't do this alone. I need you to help me, and that means helping me put together the clues. What happened to Nott?"

"What happened to Nott is of no importance!" he snapped, finally getting irritating at her insistence. "He knew the Death Eaters were coming, that's all!"

Ginny fell into a silence, contemplating this as Blaise paced around the room, rubbing his mouth angrily as though upset that he had been forced into saying something he didn't want to.

"…Knew they were coming?" Ginny asked timidly. "You mean he knew about the Battle of Hogwarts? …How could he?"

"His father was a Death Eater," Blaise spoke bitterly, but he didn't seem able to stop himself, as though this were some sort of confession. "Their family were purebloods in service to You-Know-Who, although his father wanted to get out for years. Got cold feet when he saw the plans for the new regime. Theodore knew about the plan for the battle because his father knew about it. I don't think Nott would have had the nerve to warn anyone, but when You-Know-Who realized that Nott's father was having doubts, he had him eliminated and sent some Death Eaters to attack Nott's family so they could never say a word. Theodore knew they were coming for him. He tried to confide in me, but I wouldn't let him because I knew then they'd take both of us out when they came. They Death Eaters came, as promised. They overdid it a bit, the filthy cowards that they were. Put such a memory charm on Theodore that his brains were permanently addled. He's still in St. Mungo's today."

Blaise finished speaking, and Ginny shivered in fear, realizing that this scene must have taken place in the week she missed by time travel. "So you didn't know about the Battle of Hogwarts before it happened?" she asked.

"No," said Blaise, and it sounded like he was a little ashamed. "I didn't let Theodore tell me what he knew because then the Death Eaters would have come after both of us. The Battle took me by surprise, too."

Ginny bit her lip in disappointment. "But now _I _know about it…" she said. "I can go back and tell you about it and we can help…"

Blaise shook his head. "The plan was so complex I don't even know all of it. I can't give you a rundown on how to beat them."

"Well, you can _try_, can't you?" Ginny asked in annoyance.

"It wouldn't do much good."

Ginny ground her teeth, getting more annoyed by the moment. "Right. Well, if you think you can't help, then I guess I don't have much more business here."

She stood up, and he looked at her levelly with a little resentment in his eyes. "Don't be like that. Don't get all bent out of shape because I'm not as optimistic—"

"That's not it, Blaise. That's not it at all," she said, pulling out the time turner. "I'll come to see you again later, but I have to go now."

"I may not remember you next time," he pointed out. He seemed disappointed that she was going so soon, but also irritated by her reaction. "You should leave something so I remember you if I see you before this."

Ginny thought about this. It was true that she didn't want to have to introduce herself to him a third time. But on the other hand, anything she gave him now would not exist if she visited him at any point prior to this.

"I'll leave some sort of message in your cave once I go back," she said. "That way, you'll always know to expect me at any point I meet you later."

"Fine."

It was a tense moment as they regarded each other, with no particularly good feeling.

"See you, then," she said finally, tearing her gaze from his and spinning the time turner.

She thought she might have heard him say "Ginny…" a split second before she vanished, but the moment disappeared too fast to be sure.

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A/N

Well...err...

Sorry it's been so long! Not as long as the gap between chapter 3 and 4 I think, but still pretty bad. I've been sort of distracted with other stories and with school, but now it's summer I have no excuse. Aside from a bit of traveling, I'll be updating much more regularly; I promise I WILL finish this story! You're in for a treat; thanks for reading, guys.

By the way, I know a few people have asked me about doing chapters in Blaise point of view, and I HAVE tried, but it just doesn't really work and it makes it sort of awkward to be swapping perspectives. So sorry about that.

S.H. Out ;D


	10. Carrows' Domain

**The Hourglass: Chapter 10**

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Ginny had barely finished twirling before she hastily regained her balance and stormed out of the now-empty cave. What the hell was wrong with Blaise? She hadn't liked the attitude of that one at all. He was worse than present-day Blaise; not wanting to help people or take any action at all. What had caused this change of attitude in him? Was it just a phase that Blaise went through in his early twenties? Ginny hoped so. She leaned against the face of rock outside the cave and folded her arms. Now she had the lovely task of figuring out when she was again, and coming up with some sort of message to leave Blaise for the future.

If she ever were to meet him again before the time of her last visit, she had to be ready. She could write some sort of message on the wall of the cave for him. But that somehow didn't seem like a good idea, in case some random travelers or something came into the cave and saw it before Blaise moved in. She could leave a letter, though. It would have to be somewhere hidden a bit, so that casual passerbys wouldn't notice it, but easy enough to find that someone living there would discover it…

Ginny fumbled through her pockets and was pleased to find that her habit of carrying around scrap parchment and a quill had come in handy. She settled herself down on a rock outside the cave so she would have enough light to write by.

How to begin? She spun the quill around indecisively. "Dear" sounded awkward, but just writing "Blaise" seemed rude. Finally she settled on writing a 'To Blaise—" on the top. She began to write slowly, wondering what he would think of this letter when he received it in the future. She was creating another alternate universe by writing this. The thought was disconcerting, but she just didn't see how else to ensure that he would know her on the next visit. She found it was difficult to say what she meant in a simple letter, when it was so difficult to say even in person.

After a few minutes, she lifted her quill to examine her work.

_To Blaise—_

_Your friend Ginny writes you from the year 1994. I've found a time-turner at Hogwarts and I'm using it to commute with you during the period that you live in this cave. Hogwarts is in trouble and that's why I need your help forming a plan of combat for the Battle of Hogwarts. Please expect me to visit you one day. _

_-Ginny Weasley_

It was definitely a very odd letter, and one that would make no sense to anyone who didn't know Blaise or Ginny, which was good. Ginny doubted whether Blaise himself would believe it upon reading it in the future. He might think it was a trap of some sort or else total nonsense. But all those suspicions would be dispelled upon seeing her for real and at least this way, he would not be as shocked.

Ginny shook her head and sealed the letter. She had added the bit on the end so that Blaise would know what she wanted from him when she came to meet him. Maybe he could straighten out his priorities by then and be of some use next time.

She looked at the paper in her hand, pathetically thin and fragile, and quickly cast a waxing charm on it so that it would resist both moisture and heat and preserve for years. She re-entered the cave to plant it in a dark corner and then left again, but not before re-burying her bronze Knut outside the cave entrance.

For the first time since returning, Ginny noticed that outside the cave, the sun wasn't up yet. The sky was a pale, cloudy white of earliest dawn. That could either mean she had managed to make it back on the right day, a few hours later, or else was she in a completely different time zone again. Either way, the earliness of the hour afforded Ginny the lucky opportunity to skulk back to the school without being stopped or sighted.

Ginny started to make her way down to the village, wondering vaguely how she was going to get past the dementors that were on the outskirts of the Hogwarts grounds. She didn't like the idea of being caught like a criminal—perhaps she should wait until the sun rose a little bit more and then go out to the Quidditch field and pretend she was out for an early practice? Students weren't technically supposed to be on the field before or after hours without a teacher's permission, but she could pretend not to have known. After all, it was better to be thought stupid than caught trying to break into a side entrance, which would be significantly harder to explain.

Hogsmeade was sort of beautiful at this time of day. Her feet whispered through the silent streets and the place had a peaceful and quiet aura. Ginny watched her breath rise before her and passed the closed shops at a brisk pace. She was so focused on getting back that she did not notice a light go on in the post office as she passed. She was a good fifty yards away before the silence was abruptly and cruelly shattered by the sound of a door being roughly thrown open and heavy footsteps descending steps.

Ginny barely had time to turn or pull her wand before someone in a black cloak that smelled foully was nearly upon her.

"And where do you think you're going, Missy? Thought you'd take a nice little after hours stroll?" the swarthy figure brandished the tip of his wand at her throat while she cringed at the intensified smell.

"I'm—a student up at the school!" she said as bravely as she could manage with the bit of wood poking her windpipe. "I just had to go to the station—it was an emergency—" was the only thing Ginny could think of to say.

"An emergency, eh?" his voice was thick with sardonic amusement and he gave a nasty laugh. "Well, I didn't get any message about an emergency. We'll just see about that. We'll just see how the Carrows take to this news—"

He stuck one hand up the left sleeve of his robes, pressing his skin, and suddenly, it clicked. Ginny shrank back in horror.

_Death Eaters in Hogsmeade. It's come true._ She remembered thinking, panic shooting through her fogged disbelief before she was grabbed roughly by the collar of her cloak and dragged forward towards a carriage that was waiting at the village entrance, against which she half-heartedly struggled. Had she completely messed up the time travel? Was she still in old-Blaise's time or what? And who the hell were the Carrows?

Back up at the school, the Death Eater marched her through the dark corridors, not caring, it seemed, how much noise he made. Indeed, he seemed to want to wake up as many people as possible. When Filch furiously rounded a corner, brandishing a mop and a terrible scowl, the Death Eater curtly told him that he was taking a student to see the Carrows and Filch's objections immediately ceased, intensifying Ginny's sense of fear. If Filch approved of it, it had to be lethal. The Carrows must be Death Eaters as well—or worse.

To her surprise, however, she was not led to a dungeon or anything of the sort, but merely along the familiar corridors to the Defense Against the Dark Arts office. She stood in utter bemusement as the Death Eater knocked sharply and then entered the dark office. A figure that Ginny didn't recognize was standing with his back to the desk. He turned around as they entered. "And who have you brought for me now, at this hour?" was his comment before stopping short at the sight of Ginny.

He was a squat, doughy figure and he gave a short laugh at the sight of Ginny that made her hair stand on end. "You may go, Avery."

The man called Avery looked annoyed at being dismissed without so much as a thanks, but it seemed that he was in the inferior position, because he merely backed out of the room with a glare and shut the door with a snap.

"So—Miss Weasley, isn't it?" said the man Ginny supposed was Carrow.

She didn't know what to say. It made her uneasy that he knew her by face, but there was no point lying.

"It's good to finally meet you," he said in an amused sort of voice after a pause. "For it's really all thanks to you that my sister and I are now the punishment administrators of Hogwarts." He gave a horrible little giggle again.

Ginny felt a sick lurch in her stomach. What did this guy mean? How much time had she missed? What…what the _hell _was going on?

"But you've been missing for some time," he continued. "And then one day you just show up prowling the streets of Hogsmeade. Care to explain that?" his voice took on a menacing edge.

"I…" Ginny couldn't think of any explanation whatsoever. There was absolutely no reason for her to have been in Hogsmeade at that time. "I…don't know how it happened…"

"And yet you seem quite aware of yourself right now," his tone further sharpened. "I assure you, if you _cannot _explain where you were all this time, I can find some way of _assisting_ you—"

"Wait!"

The door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts office crashed open and Ginny jumped back in shock as Carrow looked up sharply.

It was McGonagall, in her tartan robe, looking utterly frantic. Relief began to clog Ginny's senses as McGonagall crossed the room, saying, "She's back, then? Really, Miss Weasley needs to go to the hospital wing right away!"

"Weasley and I have not finished our discussion!" snapped Carrow, looking at McGonagall with livid eyes, though he seemed a little taken aback by her intensity. "And I have not called for you yet; you have no business here—"

"Perhaps you have forgotten the conditions under which you were employed at this school?" McGonagall spoke over him in a superbly authoritative, confident voice, though Ginny knew she must be afraid. "You and your sister were commissioned because of the very instance of students' disappearances, so that you could keep a closer eye on this school. Miss Weasley may have been abducted and is possibly traumatized. She needs to see Madame Pomfrey immediately!"

"I—you will respect your administrators!" was the only thing Carrow managed to shout out, in view of his relative surprise to McGonagall's reaction. "I won't have you telling me how to run this school!"

"I intended no such thing. But this distressed student has no more business here tonight. You may speak to her in the morning. The Minister of Magic will hear about this—"

Carrow's face worked furiously and he and McGonagall both looked at Ginny, who quickly realized that she should appear traumatized and tired in this instant, but her face was probably already in that expression, so she did not have to work much to change it.

McGonagall seized onto Carrow's moment of hesitation and grabbed Ginny by the arm, steering her out of the office with surprising strength. "In the morning, Carrow."

The two of them half-ran down the corridor, heading towards the hospital wing, Ginny utterly amazed at her escape and half expecting Carrow to chase them.

"Professor, what—"

"Not now." McGonagall silenced her as expected. Ginny was so confused right now, so utterly wrong footed by all these events that she could hardly contain herself as they rushed up the stairs to see Madame Pomfrey, but she understood that she had to remain silent. Although Ginny wasn't feeling in any particular need of whatever Madame Pomfrey was likely to prescribe, she understood that she had to pretend to be ill. Clearly, that was the only way that McGonagall had been able to think of to get Ginny out of the office. And Ginny was extremely grateful for it. McGonagall had saved her, yet again.

They finally arrived at the wing and after being fussed over by the nurse and forced into bed, Ginny called out before McGonagall could leave.

"Professor, please, wait!"

McGonagall who was close to leaving, slowly turned and doubled back to the bed as Ginny threw the sheets off and stood up. "What is it, Miss Weasley?"

"Professor, what's going on now? How long have I been gone?"

McGonagall sighed. She was clearly reluctant to discuss it, but the utter confusion and desperation in Ginny's eyes seemed to strike a chord with her.

"Twelve days." McGonagall spoke seriously, but very softly, looking directly at Ginny. "You were gone twelve days, and as such, there are things you don't understand right now. I'm sorry I had to exaggerate this illness, but it was the only way to get you out of there."

"Who was that man—Carrow?" Ginny's head was wild with questions.

McGonagall looked down. "We should discuss this later. You need rest—"

"No!" Ginny didn't mean to sound so cross, but she might explode if she didn't get answers now. "Professor, I have to know what's happening!"

McGonagall sighed again, and shut her eyes briefly before opening them again. She seemed to be trying to think of the fastest way to summarize. "Miss Weasley, the Carrow siblings, Alecto and Amycus, are the new discipline administrators at Hogwarts. They were installed just last week."

"But they're Death Eaters!" Ginny cried, to which McGonagall shushed her.

"The Ministry has been under the control of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named since last year. A figurehead puppet Minister was installed to do his bidding because he refuses to come into public, but he controls the school all the same."

"That Carrow said that I was the reason he was in power—" Ginny blustered, unable to control herself.

"So far, Hogwarts has done all it can resisting Ministry influence," McGonagall replied. "But after the disappearances of several more students, it could not be kept from the Ministry what was happening at Hogwarts. They feel we're incompetent and sent the Carrows as overseers and administrators."

"What do you mean, _several_ disappearances? It's just me, right?"

"No, Miss Weasley. Other students have been…taken."

Ginny looked at her in horror as she realized what this meant. It was Nott all over again.

"But—but this is madness!" she finally cried when she found her voice. "It's the Death Eaters who are _doing_ it! How can they send _Death Eaters_ to stop what Death Eaters are _doing_?"

"I know that. But we can't prove it and the Ministry was just looking for an excuse to move more reinforcements into Hogwarts," McGonagall said sharply. "An excuse that the public could understand—to gain support for the government…"

Ginny looked down at her feet, wanting to cry. She had never felt responsible for the school's administration until now. "I'm so sorry, Professor. I never meant—"

"It's not your fault, Miss Weasley!" McGonagall said immediately, as if reading her thoughts. "The Ministry has just been waiting for an opportunity to extend its influence in Hogwarts all year. The disappearances were just an excuse. If not this, they would have found another way."

This didn't make Ginny feel much better. Rubbing her nose, she looked up, realizing she had forgotten another key piece of information. "Who else has disappeared?" she asked.

McGonagall swallowed. There was a moment of silence and Ginny realized that McGonagall had been trying to delay this moment.

"Various…students of half-blood parentage," she said finally, deliberately enunciating. "And—" she paused. "Miss Luna Lovegood."

Ginny felt as though the air around her thinned. She stared into McGonagall's bespectacled eyes, unable to believe what she had heard. Slowly, she shook her head, hoping McGonagall would confirm her doubt.

But McGonagall nodded, breaking eye contact and looking at the floor. "It was just before Easter break," her voice was surprisingly thick. "The students were leaving through Hogsmeade. And one of them took her out of the station, right off the train—"

Ginny covered her ears so she wouldn't have to hear more. She sank onto the bed, feeling a hopeless fear and nausea overtake her. Nott, she could handle. But what would she do without Luna, her right hand? How could she have let this happen? She had been so obsessed with the future that she hadn't given a thought to the present, and now this had happened.

McGonagall too, seemed momentarily taken with emotion and unable to speak. Professor McGonagall, Ginny realized, had done her duty. She had been here, in the present, where she was needed, helping the students who were defenseless and not off somewhere making illustrious plans for the future. How could Ginny have been such a fool? She thought back to the letter she had written to Blaise and felt ashamed. This was it. She was never going to time travel again.

"Thank you…" Ginny said finally, her voice thick. "For helping me."

McGonagall looked at her. "Of course," she said. "But…" she lowered her voice. "Miss Weasley, _do_ you know where you have been these past few weeks?"

Ginny paused, looking at this woman who had just saved her from cruel punishment, and knew she would not be able to lie. Very slowly, she nodded yes.

McGonagall regarded her. "Can you tell me?" it was a gentle request.

Ginny shut her eyes. She shook her head.

McGonagall nodded and didn't press the matter. "They will be back for you in the morning. The only thing that keeps the Carrows in check is fear of being regulated by the Ministry, because they if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has to take time to deal with their actions, they are in trouble. Your best bet is to act like you can't remember anything, because in fact, it's not been abnormal for students to have their memories modified these days. I will ensure that they don't use Veritaserum."

Ginny stared at her, awed that McGonagall was not forcing her to explain her absence. It was just one more of the magical things about the Transfiguration teacher.

"You may join your house tomorrow. Until then, try to get some rest. You'll need it."

Ginny nodded dumbly and watched as McGonagall retreated from the hospital wing and descended the staircase.

* * *

A/N

Working faster now, yes? It still takes me a while because I edit obsessively, and yet there are still typos and stuff that drives me crazy.

I know I'm going off the book in several ways right now, but hey, that's the 'fiction' part of this site! :D

Double digit chapters!


	11. Practical Lesson

**The Hourglass: Chapter 11**

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It was worse than Ginny had anticipated. Nothing in the defense club's practice of Occlumency had prepared her for the interrogation the next morning. Alecto Carrow, who turned out to be just as unpleasant but slightly more manic than her brother, carried out the questioning.

Following McGonagall's advice, Ginny pretended not to know anything about what had happened to her. Her story was that she remembered entering the bathroom on the second floor and woke up later in Hogsmeade not remembering a thing. It was a weak story, but there was no way that Carrow could check with every single Death Eater to see whether it was true or not, and anyway, the fact that the Weasleys were known "blood traitors" probably made it easier to swallow.

Nevertheless, Carrow seemed to suspect that Ginny wasn't letting on and she obviously attempted Legilimency a few times. Fortunately, Carrow was none too skilled in the art and proved rather easy to block out, especially compared to the attempts that Blaise had made. Eventually, Carrow got fed up with the same unanswered questions and in a fit of rage assigned Ginny a detention for the next day. This surprised Ginny, because it seemed like such a mild punishment, but from the way Carrow ground her teeth and triumphantly announced it, Ginny had a sickening feeling that there was more to this detention than met the eye.

Ginny was instructed to resume classes as normal that afternoon. She had been pleased and rather relieved to return to her peers; however, the classes had morphed even more in her absence. The classroom was literally like a morgue—as Ginny stared around her Arithmancy class in perplexity, all the students were silent. Everyone was working diligently and seemed to be completely focused, yet there was a thick tension in the room. When Ginny whispered to borrow a quill from a classmate, the other girl flinched and passed it over only very unwillingly, as if it were explosive, under the desk. Even Professor Vector spoke in a strained kind of voice, not making eye contact with the students, and thus increasing the pressure over the whole class.

Ginny's confusions were answered when after the first fifteen minutes of class, Alecto Carrow poked in to sit in the corner of the room for about ten minutes. She just sat there with a clipboard and a sneer on her face: clearly, she did rounds to check that the discipline was being enforced. Although Carrow did not linger long, Ginny could feel the fear of her fellow classmates and teacher and it was most disconcerting to realize what an influence those clownish Death Eaters had had on Hogwarts.

Overall, Ginny was quite relieved when they were dismissed at the end of an hour and she could return to the dormitory. Entering the common room for the first time in what felt like ages, Ginny was almost immediately ambushed by Neville and allowed herself to be dragged to a corner of the room to explain. Before Neville could open his mouth, she hastily cast the Muffliato charm around them; the day's events had started to make her paranoid about being overheard.

Neville was so obviously tremendously relieved to see Ginny that, like with Professor McGonagall, Ginny simply couldn't bring herself to lie to him. Especially now that he was one of the only friends she had left. However, unlike with McGonagall, Ginny told Neville the whole story, starting from the beginning when she had found the time turner in Hermione's file all the way to her latest exploit. He listened in shock, eyes growing wider as she went.

"And when you spin it backwards, it moves you back in time but you end up geographically just where you were," Ginny finished explaining hurriedly and plucking at the chain around her neck, though she had flatly refused to take it out and show it here in the common room. "That's how I got back to the same mountain just where I was."

Neville stared in disbelief. "And this is the _second _time—"

"I know, I know; I should have told you earlier," she said regretfully. "It was stupid of me. I shouldn't have gone back when you guys needed me here. I'm never going back there again, I promise."

She spoke fervently, but Ginny still thought she caught a flicker of resentment in Neville's eyes at the words "you guys".

"You heard about Luna?" he asked simply.

"Yes."

There was a long moment of silence, in which Ginny was afraid that Neville was suddenly going to start berating her for her behavior. Indeed, Ginny was amazed by how _well_ Neville was taking the news so far. It seemed that his mind was somewhere else: he looked troubled and pensive and faraway. There was something different in his manner and after giving it some thought, Ginny realized that Neville seemed older than usual. He had always had a kind of baby-fat boyishness about him, but right now he appeared aged and mature, and Ginny couldn't quite explain why.

"You know, she didn't do anything," Neville finally said quietly, folding his hands on his lap and looking past Ginny, over her shoulder. "They came on the train to take her—and she didn't even struggle. She said, 'oh, you're there' when she saw them. And she stopped me from interfering. It was like she knew they were coming." Neville's voice almost disappeared on the last words.

Ginny looked down at her knees, able to perfectly imagine this. It was so sickening, all of it. Luna didn't need a time turner to know what was coming.

"I don't know what we'll do without her," Ginny admitted, trying to sound more positive than she actually felt. "But we've got to stick together. More defense meetings…every day of the week—"

"How are we supposed to do that? They patrol all the time," said Neville morosely.

"Well, we'll figure out a way around them," said Ginny determinedly.

"What are you talking about? You don't even know how it is!" Neville said, rather more coldly than usual. "The security's like a noose around us since last week. You haven't seen how—"

"Neville, I know I screwed up! You think I don't know that? I wish I had never gone to meet Blaise!" she cried, before he could continue that unbearable line of thought.

He fell silent and she immediately felt badly for shouting.

"Listen, I understand that I messed up, but you have to stay with me! Don't you abandon me because—"

"Because you chose Zabini over us?" Neville supplied bitterly.

"It wasn't like that! You know it wasn't! I went there to try to save Hogwarts!" She was almost tearful.

Again Neville was quiet and Ginny rubbed her eyes, wishing there was some way to make him understand. "I know you've lost a lot of faith in me, but you've got to trust me again. _Please_ help me, Neville. We can save Hogwarts."

He looked at her, disbelief evident in his eyes. "You really think we have a chance? Without Harry?"

"Neville, I—I _know _we do. Don't be like that—don't be like—" she restrained herself from saying 'Blaise'.

He looked down and nodded slowly. Neville had always had faith in his friends, but right now Ginny could see she was losing him. Losing him the same way she was losing Blaise. What Neville needed was a real boost in faith, a sign from Harry, something…_anything_…

As if suddenly remembering something, Neville looked back up at Ginny, sharply this time. "You said the Carrows interrogated you this morning?"

"Yeah—well, the woman did," Ginny said, a little taken aback by the rapid change of topic.

Neville stared at her. "_How_ did you get out of that?"

"What'd you mean? I just said I didn't remember anything—she had to buy it; there was no other choice. It's not like she can prove I know anything."

"And that's _it_?" Neville sounded incredulous. His mouth dropped open; it would have been funny except that Ginny noticed he seemed to be missing a tooth on the left side.

"Well, yeah that was it; what's supposed to happen? I mean, I got detentions and all—"

"You _did_?" Neville was on his feet now and despite his earlier animosity, he now looked truly alarmed on Ginny's behalf. "Ginny, you can't take detentions lightly any more! They're not like they used to be, they're—" his face twisted as if to convey the message without speaking it. He glanced around the room.

"Ginny—they use _Unforgivable Curses_," he whispered. "They don't care. It's like sport to them."

Ginny swallowed, a lump in her throat. This was the catch she had been missing. "Well, I only have one detention," she volunteered, trying to sound hopeful. "It's tomorrow, during the day…"

"Well, you can't get another one!" Neville exclaimed. "You'll have to go through with it this time—but you have to watch yourself from now on!"

This was awful. In many ways it was worse than Umbridge's administration had ever been. But at the same time, in some perverted way, Ginny couldn't help but feel that she preferred this. At least in this case the evil was out in the open rather than lurking behind sickening smiles and perfumes. Actually, Neville seemed far more worried on Ginny's behalf than Ginny felt herself. The Carrows weren't going to kill her, after all. At least she didn't think so. She cast about for something matter-of-fact to say, to soothe him a little.

"Have there been any defense meetings since I was gone?" she asked.

"I…I think there was supposed to be one," Neville said slowly, as if he had forgotten what the defense club was. "Zabini tried to organize it. But most were too scared to show up. And I didn't get the message about it until too late. Our communication system is lousy."

"Neville…" Ginny suddenly had an idea. "Neville, do you still have those coins from the DA?"

"…the charmed galleons?" Neville asked slowly. "I mean…yeah. Mine's probably somewhere. I wouldn't have thrown it out. All the old members must have theirs, too…"

"Why didn't I think of it before? We could just use those! It would eliminate the word-of-mouth problem, and we could probably use it to send messages about when the coast is clear for getting to the club!"

Neville thought about this and slowly, very slowly, began to smile. It looked like he hadn't done that for a long time.

"You're right," he said. "I'll have to find mine, but if we can use them…there might be a chance that we could avoid patrols in the hallways. Especially if we also used invisibility hats or something."

"Exactly!" Ginny was momentarily happy, inspired by the brilliance of Hermione that was still shining years later. Her smile faded however, as she wondered how to face Blaise again, to tell him about this new plan. What kind of explanation was she going to give him for her absence? This was getting ridiculous.

"I can find the old bunch and we can redistribute them at a meeting tomorrow," Neville was saying. "Or I could even hand them out during the day so that we can start using them right away."

"I could do that," Ginny said.

"No." Neville spoke flatly and looked straight at her. "I'll take care of this. You just concentrate on handling your detention tomorrow."

The way he said it was so deadpan serious that it made the hairs on the back of Ginny's neck stand on edge.

**XxX**

The next day passed in much the same fashion as the previous: the classes, the in-between breaks, and even the mealtimes crawling by with a certain shade of morbidity to them. Ginny understood now, it was the fear of punishment that was keeping the students in line and so quiet. All throughout the morning, Ginny felt as thought she had swallowed several chocolate frogs whole, as her stomach squirmed and hopped in anxious anticipation of the detention. Carrow had given Ginny no specific time, saying that she would be called, but Ginny imagined the detention would be an evening affair.

Thus, it was rather a shock when the hours of nervous anticipation were abruptly cut short. Only about ten minutes into her first class of the afternoon, Charms, Ginny was pulled out by Alecto Carrow.

The large, doughy-white woman interrupted without hesitation. She said nothing, only strode to the front of the room, which was more than enough to get everyone's attention, including Professor Flitwick, who was standing on the arm of his chair.

"I'm afraid Miss Weasley has a little appointment with me today, Professor," Carrow said in a false, fruity voice as if she were trying not to laugh. "She won't be able to stay for the rest of Charms."

Every head in the class turned to look at Ginny and she dropped her eyes, packing her books and standing up. She could hear nervous whispers passing among the students as she walked to the front of the room to meet Carrow. Like her, they must be anticipating what was in store for Ginny. Professor Flitwick gave her a look of deepest sympathy before she was swept out the door.

Carrow walked surprisingly fast, though it might have just been because she was in such a state of excited anticipation. It was really foul, the way she half-skipped as though they were off to Honeydukes or something. Ginny found that she preferred to look at anything, the doorways to classrooms or the ceiling or floor, rather than the woman in front of her.

"And today, Weasley, you find out what happens to troublemakers at Hogwarts," were the only words of explanation Alecto offered to Ginny as they walked.

Ginny didn't reply. She had nothing to say to this. Strictly speaking, she hadn't even caused any trouble, but pointing this fact out to Carrow would achieve nothing. What confused Ginny was that it was class time right now. She had never been taken out of a class for a detention before. Moreover, they didn't seem to be heading to the dungeons or to any of the offices, where punishments usually took place, but instead along a corridor of classrooms.

As if knowing what Ginny was thinking, Alecto said, "Today you'll be assisting a Defense Against the Dark Arts class in their practical lesson." She smiled horribly, and laughed a little, so very much like her brother.

Ginny's insides lurched horribly. A practical lesson? In Umbridge's time, Defense Against the Dark Arts had been restricted to book work, so this new regime clearly took a different angle. But Ginny hadn't been to a Defense Against the Dark Arts class yet since coming back. What kind of class had it become? How on earth would she be able to "assist"…?

They strode along the corridors to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room and Ginny's heart began thudding harder, almost painfully. Arriving at the door, Carrow didn't even bother to knock, but simply entered, and Ginny immediately saw why.

For one thing, it was Amycus Carrow who stood at the front of the classroom, clearly the new professor of the subject. For another, it was quite evident from the set-up of the classroom that Alecto and Ginny had been expected.

The desks had all been pushed to the sides of the room, leaving a gaping space in the center, rather the same way, Ginny noted with a gulp, she and Blaise set up the Room of Requirement for Stunning sessions. Ginny didn't recognize most of the students; they were Slytherins and Ravenclaws, and seventh years by the look of it, pressed against the walls of the room, most of them with their heads down, waiting for instruction. Only a few Slytherins were looking up and seemed interested when Ginny entered.

With a small shove from behind, Ginny was pushed to the center of the room where three other people were standing, other students that were clearly not enrolled in this class. They seemed to be underclassmen, and they looked as scared as Ginny felt. Ginny realized that they must have also earned detention for this day, which increased her feeling of pity as she stepped into line with them.

"Took you long enough. I haven't been able to start the lesson yet," hissed Amycus to his sister, to which she responded by stinging him with the end of her wand.

"I had to collect her from the other side of the school, you fool—"

They bickered for a bit before Alecto finally went to sit on the other side of the classroom and Amycus stood up to his full height to speak to the students.

"Today's lesson will be a practice of what we have been studying for the past few days," he said loudly, to which Ginny saw several students in the class flinch and the kids next to her whimpered. "Split into groups of five now and you will take turns with these—" he gestured to Ginny and the other three kids, "—misbehaving students."

The students stood tentatively for a moment, then slowly began to shuffle into groups, most of them looking at their feet.

"Hurry up!" Amycus barked to get them moving. "We haven't got the whole day!"

When the students were all grouped, Ginny could see that there was a group of five students for each of the students in the center of the class. Ginny realized that she was the first in line.

"Good now," said Amycus, his smile widening more than ever as he saw the line-up. "We'll start with Weasley then, today—"

Out of the corner of her eye, Ginny saw a member of the class's head shoot up, but she was focusing on Amycus. It appeared that Amycus noticed as well, because he said. "Oh yes—of course, I think we all know who should go first!"

He laughed, though no one joined in.

"I trust that you learned your lesson last time, Mr. Zabini?" asked Amycus, amusedly. "_You_ will be the first to practice the Cruciatus Curse on Weasley here."

Ginny whirled around in shock. Was Blaise really in this class? She looked carefully, and saw that indeed, the person who had looked up at the mention of Ginny's name was Blaise. He was lurking in the shadows near the back of the group which was why Ginny hadn't seen him before.

"Zabini! Forward!" Alecto shouted, making Amycus scowl at his sister before repeating the command himself.

Blaise gave them both withering looks as if they were annoying children before very slowly stepping forward into the light of the arena.

Ginny couldn't help but gasp a little. Blaise looked horrible: he had bruises and cuts on his face and his lip was swollen in the corner. His robes also sat a little oddly, as if the body beneath were contorted. However, his eyes were defiant and glowing like coals as they shot a look of hatred at Amycus.

"Now do as you're told," said Amycus again, clearly enjoying Blaise's animosity. "The Cruciatus Curse we have been practicing."

Blaise didn't move. He merely stood there, staring as if he were trying to perform a silent spell. After about thirty seconds, Alecto broke in again, shrill this time.

"Are you aiming for a repeat of last time? That can be arranged if you refuse again! Perform the spell!"

Again, Blaise ignored her. It seemed effortless, like he really didn't hear her. His only response was to turn his gaze from Amycus to Ginny. Ginny couldn't look away. They just stood staring at each other for Ginny did not know how long as the Carrows shouted instructions that neither Ginny nor Blaise paid attention to. It didn't even occur to Ginny to put a pleading look on her face to Blaise. He wasn't going to touch his wand if his life depended on it. After a minute or two passed this way, the trance was broken when Amycus bodily grabbed Blaise by the arm and hurled him over to his sister. Blaise allowed himself to be steered out of the room without a fight as Alecto continued to shout threats and the door banged shut behind the two of them.

Ginny stared after them, shell-shocked. Whatever had happened to Blaise to make him look the way he did was probably about to repeat itself right now, she realized. She couldn't bear to think about it.

"Fine then—Johnson, you next!" Amycus bellowed at the next person in Ginny's group, his temper now up.

Johnson was a nervous-looking Ravenclaw who stepped forward and pulled out his wand with a shaking hand. Like Blaise, he paused for a long while.

"Johnson!" Amycus warned. "You'll end up like Zabini!"

Johnson gave Ginny one more helplessly apologetic look before shutting his eyes tightly. _"Cru—crucio!"_

There was a bang and Ginny was knocked off her feet, backwards into the desks. It hurt, but definitely nowhere near as much as it was supposed to. Ginny remembered what Moody had taught her in third year, about having to _mean_ the curses. Nevertheless, it was a shock, so it was very unsteadily that she got to her feet again.

"No—terrible! Worthless boy, it's like this!" shouted Amycus, intervening himself. "_Crucio!_"

And Ginny was on her back again, this time feeling as though cruel hot cutlasses were carving her from the inside. It was pain unbearable—beyond belief—it had to stop—

And then it did. Ginny lay, panting on the floor, hands over her face, while Amycus drew another student forward by the collar, looking grimly satisfied by his handiwork.

"_That's _how you do it! Pritchard, you next!"

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ooo

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Hmm...a bit of a sudden place to leave off, but the chapter was getting too long. Poor gallant Blaise! Come, comment and tell me how much you loved it. ;D


	12. Dearest Disappearance

**The Hourglass: Chapter 12**

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Despite the events of the afternoon, Ginny returned to the dormitory only slightly earlier than she would on a normal day. After the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, if it could even be _called_ that anymore, the Carrows had made Ginny return to her own classes and forced her to complete the school day. Ginny suspected it was so that when her peers saw her in class, all white and shaken, they would be even further under the rule of terror than they already were.

She had never experienced such a long afternoon. She felt exhausted and beaten, every bit of her body tender to the touch. Somehow, she managed to last through the rest of the classes; her teachers cautiously gave her room knowing what she had been through, but all in all, it didn't seem that this was considered an abnormal experience. She skipped dinner, too tired to lug herself to the Great Hall and instead returned to the dormitory.

So this was what Neville had meant. Though she had known the Unforgivable Curses were coming…she hadn't thought that the Carrows could be forcing _the students_ themselves to perform them on one another. It was outrageous, beyond all reason…and completely possible at this new Hogwarts, she now realized. It was just the new order of things. By punishing one another, the students would develop a certain callousness as well as an aptitude for the Dark Arts.

Ginny shivered and collapsed into an armchair, pulling her knees to her chest. Although tired and aching all over, she was not seriously hurt; most of the damage that had been inflicted upon her this afternoon was from Amycus Carrow, since the students had been too scared to do much real harm. After Ginny was finished, the other three students on detention had each been tortured by their groups of five students, which was even more sickening to watch than going through it personally.

But they would be all right in time; the damage wasn't lasting—what worried Ginny more was the fate of Blaise. She hadn't seen him at lunch, and had no idea what Alecto Carrow might have done with him after the lesson. Surely it couldn't be worse than the Cruciatus Curse…but then again, who knew? What scared Ginny was the fact that he had been hauled off because he refused to curse _her_. Not even _refused_ exactly…he had just ignored the instruction. But disregarding a direct order from the Carrows might be an even greater offense than the one Ginny had committed.

Blaise had already looked so beaten-up today that Ginny felt sure this wasn't the first time he had resisted using the curse against another student.

She wasn't sure whether or not she was grateful for Blaise's gallantry. At the time of course, she had been touched by the gesture, but on the other hand, his punishment for disobeying the Carrows might be worse than hers. It may have been a smarter move for him to just perform the Cruciatus Curse badly on purpose, minimizing the punishment for both of them. But she didn't blame him for freezing up, if that was what happened. It was difficult to sort out these details under pressure and when he had looked at her, there was no conniving streak in his face. His eyes, usually squinted as though he were plotting something secret, had been relaxed and open. He had simply seemed to be searching her face; after all, it was the first time seeing her in a couple of weeks.

Ginny shook her head. The more she thought about it, the more clear it became that in the long run, Blaise's sacrifice wasn't worth it, and it was a bitter thought.

She sat there for a while longer until eventually Neville entered through the portrait hole and came over to her side with surprisingly quiet footsteps.

"I didn't see you at dinner."

Ginny shook her head, not in the mood for talking.

"Eat this," he said, handing her a warm napkin which she accepted gratefully and unwrapped to find a dinner roll.

He sat down on the arm of her chair while she slowly began to pull it apart and chew carefully, her jaw sore as though someone had pulled out her teeth that morning.

"I told the members about the DA coins," Neville said after a hesitant pause. "Went around after dinner. Most people have still got theirs; I only had to hand out a few. The only person I couldn't find was Zabini."

Ginny nodded, her eyes cast down.

"Do you know where he is?" Neville seemed to be trying to make small talk. Ginny looked up at him with tired eyes.

"Maybe getting his brains pickled, by now."

Neville stared at her, not understanding, and she swallowed the rest of the roll, which felt like a lump of glue on her tongue, before continuing.

"It was Defense Against the Dark Arts with the seventh years today."

"Oh…" Neville's eyes dawned in some comprehension. "He was…in trouble?"

"He refused to curse me," Ginny replied dully. "What'd you think the punishment for that is?"

Neville let out his breath slowly. "Nothing worse than what you got."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

She thought how Blaise must look now. "Neville, I'm…tired. I'm going to go to bed."

"Alright…" he looked a little anxious as she got up and trudged towards the stairs to the dormitory. She felt too lethargic to even think about the defense club at this point. All she wanted was to sleep…to force the images of Blaise's ruined face out of her mind for a few hours at least. And tomorrow she would have to find him and start thinking seriously about how to fix all of this. It was so broken she couldn't see where to start.

XxX

When Blaise still was nowhere to be found in the Great Hall the following morning, Ginny had to take matters into her own hands. Whatever plan she was going to form, she needed him, so finding where he had gone was a first priority.

She was reluctant to leave without breakfast since this would be the second meal in a row she was skipping, but she didn't think she could wait until lunchtime and the breaks between classes may not be long enough. But where could Blaise be?

It seemed very unlikely that he was still in his dormitory, so between that and the remote possibility that he was meeting with a teacher or sending off an owl, there was only one other place he could be…

She set off at a march for the hospital wing, a little disturbed by her own conclusion, but rather sure of it all the same. With the amount of damage he had already taken in addition to however he was punished yesterday, Blaise must be sick enough for bed-rest by now.

It would be weird to see Blaise in a bed. Ginny couldn't help but let that thought cross her mind as she skipped up the flights of stairs. Blaise was arrogant, cocky and proud. He didn't _get_ sick or beaten. She should prepare herself for a very bizarre sight to meet her eyes.

And a bizarre sight did meet her eyes. But not the one she was expecting.

Ginny stood in the doorway of the hospital wing, but did not take a step into the room.

It was completely empty. _Barren_, almost, one could say. It wasn't like the room had been pillaged or anything like that, but the clean white sheets on the bed were untouched and neatly folded, and the windows on the walls were lazily opened, allowing fresh sunlight to stream in onto the unused bed stands. Even Madame Pomfrey was nowhere in sight and Ginny got no answer when she called out.

What did this mean? Were students who were tortured simply being patched up by the Carrows themselves before being shoved back into classes?

Ginny took one last look around the empty room full of beds like white coffins before slowly backing out and re-descending the staircase with slow, measured steps. She had been a patient in the hospital wing only a couple of days before. Of course, it was thoroughly possible that the school policy had changed since then, or even _because_ of that incident, but it still didn't really make sense.

But that wasn't it. What was disturbing was if Blaise had been taken out of class for punishment and now was nowhere to be found, then _where the hell was he?_

No one had been reported as missing in the last few days, as far as Ginny could tell. Of course, if the Death Eaters were the ones getting rid of people then there might not be a report, but surely they would still make some kind of excuse?

The bell initiating the first class of the day tore through Ginny's thoughts and she hurried to History of Magic, hitching up her book bag. The absolute _last_ thing she needed right now was to get in trouble for being late to class.

She let her thoughts wander all throughout Professor's Binns' lecture though, the only thing miraculously still unchanged in the new regime at Hogwarts. In her mind, Ginny ran down the list of places that Blaise could be for the thousandth time. She hadn't come up with any new epiphanies. Unless he was somewhere outside the castle walls, in the forest or in Hagrid's hut, there was really no other place she could think of. She decided that in any case, she might have just missed him the last day. If he wasn't here by dinnertime, _then _she could start to start to panic.

Dinnertime came and Ginny gave herself permission to start to panic.

It seemed like things were getting worse by the hour—at lunchtime, Ginny had tried to inquire with the Slytherins to see if any of them knew where Blaise had gone, but to her horror_, all_ the Slytherins that were in the defense club were missing from the Slytherin table!

It was getting ridiculous, like some sick joke—members of the defense club were vanishing right and left as though simply being erased. Didn't anyone else _notice_ what was going on?

Looking intently up at the long table of staff, where most of the members ate with their heads down, Ginny was relieved to see that her concern seemed to be shared at least with the Carrows. The two of them were not eating, but surveying the Hall and taking notes throughout the meal, and Ginny was fairly sure that she saw Amycus Carrow's eyes narrow as he regarded the Slytherin table that was only two-thirds full.

It was a relief that Carrow was in the dark as well; but at the same time, Ginny didn't like the idea that the entire school was in on some plot that only she and the Carrows didn't know about.

Ginny practically jumped on Neville when he entered the Hall for dinner, dragging him to the bench with his plate only half filled.

"Where _is_ everyone?" she whispered urgently. "This isn't funny! Half the defense club members are missing! It's like they're just gone from the school!"

"The Slytherins, you mean," Neville was regarding the table on the other side of the Hall with a troubled expression. "All the other houses are still here."

"You don't know where they are, then?" Ginny's heart sank as Neville shook his head no, actually looking sorrowful that he couldn't give Ginny the answers she so badly wanted.

"I'm sure they're fine," he said, though he didn't sound too convinced of it.

"Yeah, sure. Because _fine_ is what this new administration's all about, right?" Ginny couldn't stop herself from snapping, although she knew it would solve nothing. As far as she was concerned, Neville was simply not worried enough on behalf of the club members, and it was because they were Slytherins; she was sure of it.

"Ginny! Two Ravenclaws, three Gryffindors, three Hufflepuffs, and only _one _Slytherin has disappeared this year!" Neville sounded quite affronted. "If there's any problem with the regime, the Slytherins are the last to feel it; you can take my word!"

Ginny didn't want to take his word. Neville was a good friend, but these words were only grating on her nerves, which already felt like they were torn to shreds. She wished more than ever, that she could perform Legilimency really well. If she could, she could get into Blaise's mind right now, wherever he was, and find out how to help him…

Neville watched curiously as Ginny's head descended into exhaustion on the table. She hadn't eaten all day, and was probably just about ready to crash. He nudged her food towards her and awkwardly put a hand on her back. "Just eat something, all right? You look like you're dead on your feet."

When she looked up, her eyes were reddened in a way that unsettled Neville, but nodding, she said nothing more and slowly picked up her spoon.

Ginny practically fell asleep after eating dinner, such was her mental exhaustion combined with the sudden windfall of fuel after fasting for the whole day. She practically slept on Neville as he guided her back up through the portrait hole and into the dormitory.

She and Neville slumped into armchairs by the fireplace for a change, instead of their dark corner where it was less likely to be overheard.

"It seemed like the Carrows don't know where the Slytherins are, either," Ginny mumbled vaguely, getting sleepier with every moment. "I saw them taking notes at dinnertime. Unless it's some trick and they took them all away…"

"What could they possibly do with them?" Neville sounded skeptical. "Half of them are related to Ministry members. It makes no sense."

"Unless their parents had them taken out because it was too dangerous…"

"Ginny." Neville sounded serious. "I'm sure. They're. _Fine_."

He had no reasoning other than instinct, and Ginny wasn't sure this was good enough for her, but she didn't argue. The heat was making her terribly sleepy.

She supposed she must have dozed off at some point, because the next thing she knew, she was nestled deeply into the warm folds of the armchair, and someone was urgently shaking her awake.

"Whass—what's it?" Ginny groggily shook her head and opened her bleary eyes to find it was Neville again, suddenly looking thoroughly pumped with adrenaline. She couldn't tell what time it was; the common room was empty except for them, but the fireplace still had some embers so it couldn't be too late.

"Ginny! Just now—I was almost asleep too—"

"What're you talking about?" Ginny sat up, instantly on the alert, though her brain was still clogged with sleep and her eyes didn't want to open.

"The gal—_look!_" Neville shoved something round and golden in front of her face, and Ginny took ahold of the proffered galleon. It felt lingeringly warm, as though Neville had recently taken it out of an oven. She squinted at the dial, and her eyes widened as she saw what Neville was on about.

The date on the galleon read "4-2-94"

In other words, _today._

"Neville…" Ginny looked up at his face that was shining with excitement in wonder. "Who changed this?"

"I have no idea," he babbled, taking the coin back from her and examining it himself again. "I was almost asleep when I just felt this burn. Most of the defense club members have one of these, but you're the one who's supposed to set the dates of the meetings. You didn't touch yours by accident, did you?"

Ginny shuffled frantically through her pockets, but only came up with a silver sickle and a bent quill. "I don't even have mine on me," she said. "I think I left it up by my bed. I forgot about it after yesterday's detention."

"Everyone in the defense club's coin must have burned just now," said Neville pensively. He looked up at Ginny excitedly. "Do we go now or later?"

Ginny started. She wasn't so sure she was even buying this whole thing and began to bite her lip pensively. "I don't know…we don't even know who set the date. It could be a trap…"

"How? I only gave these to the defense members!"

"But if one of them lost it…or if it was taken from them somehow…"

"The taker still wouldn't know what it did! C'mon Ginny, the rest of the club will see this in the morning and head down to the Room of Requirement as soon as they can; we have to go!"

Ginny looked at Neville's determined face and down at the coin. It just seemed so odd somehow, that this was happening all of a sudden.

"Neville, what's that?" she suddenly said, pointing at the galleon again.

"What?" he picked it up to examine the serrated edges that Ginny was pointing at.

"There's a message there! I can see it!" Ginny breathed, crouching next to Neville to squint at the thin, spindly letters that were almost invisible against the serial numbers. It was just one word:

_Trunk_

"Trunk?" Ginny echoed. She looked at Neville. A cold feeling was starting to creep up her arms.

"Neville…" Ginny's mind worked quickly as the pieces came together, and a bubble of either hope or fear was forming in her chest. "Neville, if we go there, I don't think we're coming back."

There was a thick pause as they both considered these words.

"You're sure?" Neville finally whispered.

"I think so. I think whoever sent this…" she trailed off, not knowing where that line of thought was leading. "Why else would they ask us to bring a trunk?"

Neville didn't look too sure, but the cryptic message made little sense either way, so it was the best guess they had. "We're still going?"

Ginny thought about Hogwarts. She thought about the corridors and the Christmas decorations and the Quidditch fields and the professors. She thought about the friends and the feasts and the ghosts.

Then she saw it all spoiled, blackened over with punishments and cruelty and the distortions of this year. Whatever was waiting in the Room of Requirement surely couldn't be worse…

"…Yes, Neville." Ginny gulped. "We're still going."

XxX

Ten minutes later, the two of them were back in the common room with the provisions they had decided to take, casting Muffliato all around them with every step.

"What about the rest of the Gryffindor defense members?" Neville whispered to Ginny as they began to make their way out of the portrait hole for what would be the last time. "When the Carrows find out we got away, they'll probably increase security here even more. They might not be able to get out!"

But Ginny shook her head. "This still could be a trap. I'm not bringing anyone along for this and risking their lives."

Neville fell silent and Ginny pulled out their two key necessities: the Invisibility Hats and Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder.

"I can't believe how genius Fred and George are," Neville whispered, taking the hat with a smile and a handful of the powder from Ginny. "Even if these look stupid…"

Ginny nodded. Fred and George's upgrade of Headless Hats to total Invisibility Hats had been a stroke of pure brilliance and an aid in countless exploits. In unison, the two of them placed the magenta, feathery hats over their heads and began to descend the landing outside the portrait hole.

Ginny kept her wand flickering from side to side as they walked, ready to cast Muffliato on anything that seemed remotely likely to move, though she and Neville were being very quiet as was. They were lucky that the dementors only reigned at the entrances, but still, Ginny's hand was sweating rather a lot, causing the powder in her hand to turn gradually to mud.

They made their way slowly up the staircases, on the way to the seventh floor rather uneventfully, as most of the portraits were asleep. Finally, in the corridor of tapestries and paintings, Ginny and Neville were about to make their way to the entrance of the Room of Requirement when they stopped.

There was a little light at the end of the corridor. It looked like the end of someone's wand: somebody was patrolling.

Ginny's heart nearly stopped and she grabbed Neville's hand immediately to stop any further progress he might try to make, though the gesture was unnecessary. Her eyes followed as the light moved, but it was only going back and forth, as if the person was pacing. Apparently they hadn't been seen yet. Ginny weighed their chances. This might be a set-up. On the other hand, maybe patrols were here because it was so crucial for Ginny to enter the Room of Requirement. In any case, backing off and returning to bed was out of the question at this point, as far as Ginny was concerned.

She measured the distance between the figure and themselves with her eyes. She could cast Muffliato, walk past the door to the room, and once they were in, there was nothing the patrol person could do. That didn't seem like a very solid plan, but it was the best she could think of. Ginny turned to where she knew Neville was, and though she knew he couldn't see her, she nodded and squeezed his arm. They were going forward. She heard his breath hitch, but as she took a step forward, he followed along quite steadily.

They made their way only three paces before it happened.

Ginny felt a strong gust of wind in the face, as though a whirlwind had forcefully struck her, and she suddenly became aware that she was no longer invisible. Looking to her left in shock, she saw that Neville was now also visible, eyes frozen open in shock and horror at the light at the end of the passage. Ginny followed his gaze and saw it, too: Alecto Carrow was the person patrolling.

"Ah—so thought you'd take a night stroll! Who's there?" Alecto screamed, and Ginny screamed, "RUN!" before dropping her handful of powder by instinct.

They were quickly surrounded by a gritty cloud of darkness and Ginny seized onto Neville and the two of them sprinted, enveloped by the echoes of Carrow's screams. "Students out of bed! I'll find you!"

_Get us away from her!_ Ginny prayed as they ran. _Please, I don't care where, just somewhere that she can't find us; where the Carrows can't get in; please, please, somewhere that the Carrows can't get us…_

She ran headlong into a door and nearly broke her nose; the groaning noise at her side told her that Neville had also gotten hit. Without thinking, she grabbed the door's handle and wrenched it open, throwing Neville in first before stumbling after and slamming the door shut behind both of them.

And quite suddenly it was all over. The noise, the darkness, everything. Gone.

"Who's that?" a voice demanded imperiously, while another disarmed Ginny for what she felt like was the thousandth time.

Ginny looked up, vigorously rubbing the sooty powder out of her eyes, and fairly blinded by the lighting of the room.

"It's only Weasley!" said another voice and as tears helped to clear out Ginny's vision, she saw that she was fairly surrounded by a tall group of people in black robes with green hems. She blinked a few times to make sure she was seeing right and looked up into their faces.

She was in the Room of Requirement, all right. And it looked like she had found the missing Slytherins.

* * *

a/n

In the British system, dates are actually written as day/month/year, rather than month/day/year, the way we do in America. The British one makes a lot more sense if you ask me, but I figured more people would recognize the American one, so that was what I used on the galleon. But yeah, just heads up, it's April 2 in the story, not February 4.


	13. In the Room of Requirement

**The Hourglass: Chapter 13**

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**XXXXXX**  
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"You got the message."

A Slytherin called Montague whom Ginny recognized from the Quidditch team roughly pulled her to her feet, to her complete and utter astonishment. "We knew that most wouldn't see it until the morning, but it was worth a try—"

"Did you bring provisions?" someone interrupted sharply. "We're running out fast."

"Who was outside? What happened to your robes?"

"I—what—" The atmosphere momentarily stunned Ginny. The Slytherins, who could in no way have _ever_ been describe as friendly or inquisitive were suddenly spilling all these questions—and from people she had barely spoken to all year, this was really quite alarming. Not to mention she had plenty of her own questions to ask.

Most of them were staring at her intently and she felt awkward and outnumbered with only herself and Neville in a room full of Slytherins.

"Where—where's Blaise?" This was the only thing that came to Ginny's mind after a pause.

They exchanged looks, partially irritated, partially worried. "Over there," said Higgs finally, pointing across the room, and the group parted for Ginny to look more clearly. She wouldn't have believed it if the other Slytherins hadn't said so. Blaise was slung over an armchair, almost completely unrecognizable from the damage done to his face. His skin appeared bluish, with eyes swollen and slitted and marks on his cheeks. His eyes were closed and from where she was sitting, she couldn't tell whether he was breathing or not.

"Is he alright?" Ginny didn't understand her own panic clearly, and apparently neither did the Slytherins as she bolted to the other side of the room. "Is he alive—"

"Of course he's alive, don't be stupid!" Higgs grabbed her before she could reach him and dragged her back from Blaise's inert form while she struggled.

"Don't touch me! I'll hex you, I will!"

"Weasley! He's fine! He only just fell asleep; don't you go waking him up again!" Higgs snapped furiously, hauling Ginny backwards towards the crowd by the door again. "It's better that he's not awake for this; it would hurt too much."

"Didn't you even try to heal him?" Ginny whispered, still straining to get out of his grip.

"For God's sake, he's not a damn weakling—he's the one who brought us here! Organized all of this!"

Now a safe distance away from the armchair, Higgs dropped Ginny with a look of disgust at her worried expression. She had frozen, stopped struggling at last. "Wait—" she tried to clear her thoughts. "Back up. What happened?"

The Slytherins in the group exchanged annoyed mutters, clearly exasperated that she was insisting on getting her questions answered before responding to theirs. Montague however, sighed sharply and answered,

"Well in case you didn't notice, Blaise got into some trouble with the Carrows." His voice was thick with sarcasm.

"I did notice. Thanks," Ginny's mind was on rewind, seeing Blaise carted out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts room by Alecto all over again. "What did they do to him?"

"What the hell does it look like?" Montague gestured. "Torture. Again. Second time in three days."

Ginny shrank back a bit, her suspicions confirmed. "What'd he get in trouble for the first time?"

"Does it matter?" he said impatiently. "Blaise didn't get back to the dorm until late. By the time he got in, he had his mind made up. We were all leaving."

Ginny glanced at Blaise's form, and then back at Montague in wonderment. "What? He just upped and left?"

"Said he wasn't going to classes anymore," Higgs cut in coolly. "And that we could come with him or stay and be puppets. But not to expect any more defense club meetings if we were staying."

Ginny and Neville exchanged a look. "So…you guys have been here for—"

"A day."

There was a silence in the room and Ginny reflected upon how completely insane this whole thing was, that a group of students had decided to leave the school indefinitely and live in the Room of Requirement. Not to mention surreal—after all, these were _Slytherins_ they were talking about.

"None of you wanted to stay?" Neville voiced the question that was on Ginny's mind.

"What, and be the only Slytherins left in seventh year?" Higgs answered nastily. "Don't think so. At least you can _sneeze_ without a Ministry ordinance in this damn room. It's completely Carrow-proof."

Titters among the Slytherins. But this brought another thought to Ginny's mind, one that they had asked about earlier.

"Guys…" Ginny frowned in thought. "How _did _you make this room Carrow-proof? One of them was patrolling outside, but she didn't manage to follow me in…"

"Yeah, that's what I was wondering," Montague interrupted. "How did you get in? What were you thinking about?"

"I—don't remember," Ginny said indignantly. "I was panicking, mostly. And I kept wishing there was someplace where the Carrows couldn't find us..."

Montague let out a low whistle and the other Slytherins snickered again.

"You got lucky, Weasley," he said in response to the look on Ginny's face. "That's one of the only thoughts that would have let you in here. If you were just looking for someplace to hide—" he clucked his tongue and shook his head, "Wouldn't have worked. We made it so you can only find this place if you're looking for a room where no Carrow-supporters can get in. That hag can patrol day and night, but she'll never be able to set foot in this room," he finished smugly.

Ginny blinked and looked at Neville, who seemed quite as taken aback. The simplicity of the idea was really quite brilliant.

"Blaise came up with it," Montague added after a pause. I don't think he ever intends to leave here again."

"But…" Ginny cast about for some more objections, expressions of the confused thoughts that were flying through her mind. "I know I brought some provisions but… I mean, we can't _all _live off them. How are we supposed to _eat?_"

He shrugged. "This room keeps expanding to accommodate our needs and for now there are some supplies. When the other members show up, we can figure it out. Failing that, there's always cannibalism," he added with a crooked smile, and Ginny couldn't help but nervously smile as well, recognizing a gesture of lightening the situation. This was really weird.

"Who made these coins anyway?" Higgs asked Neville, examining the DA galleon with interest. "They're bloody brilliant. I didn't think the trunk message would really come through, but it did—"

"That's Hermione Granger's work," Neville said shortly. "Brightest witch in Gryffindor."

The Slytherins looked at one another; possibly they recognized the name of a 'mudblood'. However, the tense moment passed fairly soon and Ginny realized that she was exhausted.

"So we call the rest of the members tomorrow and…and go from there," she said in a lame caricature of authority, even though it was rather obvious that Blaise had been the mastermind behind this particular plan. "Guess we'll…sort things out in the morning, then."

It felt unbelievably odd to make themselves comfortable in the Room of Requirement, knowing that this was their new home for as long as was necessary. Ginny found that a washroom had sprouted in a corner, making the entire room look like a small apartment flat. The general size of the room had swollen to the point where the work area with bookshelves and tables was separated from the new, more homely side with armchairs and cushions like a living room. The only issue to make this place self-sufficient was the problem of food, but there was still time to figure that out.

The strangest part, however, was this tentative feeling of comradery with the occupants of the Room of Requirement. Ginny watched Blaise's form before falling asleep and realized that as a leader, she had accomplished both more and less than Harry did with the D.A. Sure, she had never led a fight to defend the school…yet. But she had done what Harry had never been able to do: form some sort of bond with the fourth and possibly most misunderstood house of Hogwarts. And all because Blaise had taken an interest in her. Ginny rolled over, sincerely hoping that he would be better in the morning.

**xxXxXxXxXxx**

The night was not peaceful, as Ginny had expected it to be. She had been so looking forward to a long sleep without the cruel morning bells to wake them up for classes. However, the early hours of the morning were assailed by the sounds of fists hammering on the door of the Room of Requirement, making it difficult to sleep.

It was impossible to tell whether the knocking was coming from the Carrows or from the defense members who couldn't figure out how to enter, but either way, opening the door for them and risking letting in the Carrows was out of the question. It soon became clear that they would have to send instructions on entering the room via the galleons.

By eight o'clock everyone was completely awake due to the numerous assails on the door. Even Blaise rose, though he was the last to do so. Examining the galleons together, Ginny, Neville and the other Slytherins worked to charm the galleons and change the words on the serial dials to tell other members of how to get into the room.

After sending the galleon-message, there was nothing to do but wait. When the bell for the first class of the day rang, footsteps echoed outside the room before there was a long period of silence. It was clear that the members couldn't hope to escape during classes.

The first person to arrive was Lavender Brown, who forced her way in during a fifteen-minute break period, though she looked shaken.

"I tried to get here as fast as I could," she explained. "I was supposed to meet with the Ravenclaws just as break started, but they didn't show up—I don't know what happened. They'll probably show up by lunchtime, but we wanted to do it together because the more people that go missing, the tighter the security's going to get."

It was true. Members of the defense club slowly trickled in for the rest of the day, mostly during break times and after dinner. But they showed up in increasingly frazzled conditions, which only proved that the Carrows were noticing the disappearances.

"They're catching on," Anthony Goldstein informed them seriously after a particularly frantic entrance. "There're charms everywhere outside this room in the hallway. Obviously, the Carrows would like to patrol, but since they're both teachers here they have to go to class…"

That made the Slytherins laugh. Anthony also snickered darkly before clearing his throat and continuing. "They have intruder sensors that notify them immediately when you go into that area, so you really have to bolt for the door before they catch you. 'Course, as long as you beat them into the room, you're safe, but it's tricky with all the enchantments."

"What kind of charms are they using?" Ginny asked curiously.

He shrugged. "Tripping and stupid stuff like that. They really can't curse the whole hallway, y'know what I mean? It's still school property. But they're not aiming to kill, their goal is just to slow you down enough so that you can't disappear into this room…"

Ginny snorted. "Yeah, because _moderation_ has always been their strength…"

Michael laughed appreciatively "But we've learned enough in the defense club to counter most of the stuff they threw at us," he said. "The only thing that was weird was the whirlwind."

"The whirlwind?" Ginny was momentarily confused before realizing that she had been through it as well with Neville. "That happened to you, too? That was mad, what was that!"

"Concealment breaker of some sort," Michael grunted. "When you walk through it, any disguise you have on becomes useless."

Ginny nodded, remembering the sudden failures of the invisibility hats. "We'll have to warn the last stragglers in case they try anything."

Michael smiled. "I don't think it's that much of a problem. You trained us well."

His eyes sort of lingered on her face and Ginny realized belatedly that she was blushing. Things had ended suddenly with Michael and their relationship still hadn't quite returned to a comfortable state.

She looked away and caught Blaise looking at them from across the room. He had barely spoken to Ginny since discovering her in the Room of Requirement that morning and no words had been exchanged about her disappearance. It seemed like he was numb towards her, and she had decided to give him some space, especially after all that he had been through recently.

Neville was quiet, too. Ginny suspected that had less to do with her own behavior than the absence of Luna. He spent much time regarding the D.A. galleons, examining them as if for some clue.

XxX

Eventually, when their numbers had grown to match almost the full size of the original defense club, the situation of food could no longer be ignored and they had to hold a conference to discuss it. The original plan was to send scavengers to the kitchens, but with all the work it had taken to get _into_ the room, it felt absurdly risky and nonsensical to send people _out_ again.

"We have to find some alternate method of getting food, this is ridiculous. The Carrows aren't _that_ stupid; if we send people out, sooner or later someone's going to get caught and then it'll be hell for all of us," Ginny warned.

"But no one here would ever give us _away_," Terry Boot argued. "The hiding spot would still be safe."

"Boot, don't be naïve; this isn't a question of your noblesse," Ginny said exasperatedly. "They could use _Legilimency_ on you…"

Even as she said it, she felt a stab of guilt that she was sure Blaise experienced too. They hadn't worked on any lesson plans since arriving, and practice of Occlumency had virtually gone to zero, which was shameful. It was all good and well that they had escaped, but it was a matter of even more importance that they keep practicing magic and now let their skills rot. Nevertheless, Ginny was reluctant to ask Blaise about practicing Occlumency. She felt strangely afraid of approaching him.

"Well, what's the alternative to sending people out? There's no delivery here," said Higgs. "We could probably find some shortcut to the kitchens, after all. That would help the risk factor."

"Couldn't we summon one of the house elves?" Neville voiced this idea aloud. "They're always glad to help out, they might be useful."

It was a good idea, Ginny thought. Except that the only house elf they knew was Dobby and to ask him to betray the administration was a stretch…

"The problem is their first loyalty is to Hogwarts," Blaise cut in, speaking for the first time. "If the Carrows found out and questioned the elves, they would have no choice but to give us away. They can't disobey a direct order from their master."

"…Fair point," Neville admitted, looking slightly put out. "But maybe if we could sway their allegiance, we could convince them only to listen to us! They would be good allies…"

"No, Blaise is right," Ginny said sharply. "I don't think we should put the elves in that kind of danger."

"Ginny, _we're_ in danger!" Neville cried. "If we don't find a source, we are going to _starve_. We need a—"

Neville cut himself off as abruptly as he had started shouting, and for a moment, Ginny had the ludicrous fear that someone had jinxed him. But as she looked more carefully, she saw that a change had come over Neville. He had gone silent as was suddenly staring intently at the plastered bit of wall between two portraits on the other side of the room. His eyes were wide and incredulous, as if he couldn't believe them. Confused, Ginny followed his gaze, and then she saw it too.

It was the most surreal feeling. As they stared at the space between the portraits, they suddenly became aware that it was expanding. The portraits each moved aside to form a rectangular space at least a meter wide, and it began to take on a new texture, rough and solid, with its color changing rapidly from cream to brown.

A handle protruded from the center of the rectangular shape and Ginny realized in awe that a door had just materialized out of blank wall in the Room of Requirement.

There was silence as they all looked around at each other and back at the ludicrous appearance. Neville was the first to break the spell, as this door had presumably come from his imagination. He tentatively stepped forward and grasped the handle. Ginny's instincts told her to stop him from opening it to what might be dangers, but he had pulled the door open before she could say anything in warning.

There was an audible gasp as the door creaked open.

It did not lead to an extra room that might be expected of the Room of Requirement, but showed to be the mouth of a tunnel. Only a few meters of its chalky floor was visible; the rest faded into darkness.

They instinctively pulled out their wands, but Ginny had a feeling that this was not dangerous. In fact, it looked familiar somehow.

Neville's face, bright with excitement and adrenaline, twisted over his shoulder to look at the others. "Well? Let's go check it out!"

"I'll come," said Blaise immediately, pulling out his wand without even looking at Ginny.

"I want to go, too," said Terry, and within minutes, everyone was expressing a desire to go.

"Well, we can't _all _go," said Ginny exasperatedly, one foot already in the tunnel. "Some of us have to stay behind and—"

"And what? Guard the room from intruders?" Montague asked with a clear, cajoling tone. "Nothing's going to happen here. We want to see."

It was evident from looking at the faces of the members that she would not be able to convince them otherwise. Ginny ground her teeth, realizing how much influence she had lost as a leader during her absences. There was no choice but to follow the rest of the members into the tunnel.

The walk was nerve wracking. It was ridiculous, utterly impractical that all twenty or so of them were trooping through the passage, but at the same time, there was a certain comfort in knowing that many able-bodied friends were nearby.

They walked for at least thirty minutes and with every step, Ginny sensed that they were leaving the school. Where would this passage shoot them out? The forest? Hogsmeade? The only comforting thought was that this tunnel had materialized from Neville's argument for food, so it _shouldn't_ be dangerous...

Another ten minutes passed and the path gradually began to rise in a fleet of dusty steps. It became increasingly difficult to hold their wands steady while also climbing and holding onto railings.

Neville had taken the lead, following in front with his wandlight casting a little halo before them as they went. When he suddenly stopped walking, Ginny walked right into the person in front of her, as she had not been paying close attention.

They all peered around to see what the problem was, and it was quickly evident: the tunnel ended and they had reached a blank wall.

Neville reached out to touch the dirt wall and people began hissing in confusion.

"What's going on? Is there nothing here?"

"Look at that!" Lavender suddenly said in a hushed voice.

They followed her pointing and saw that not on the wall, but on the ceiling of the tunnel, there was a trapdoor.

"You guys should stay here," Neville said quietly. "I'll go see what's up there."

"I'm coming, too." Ginny pushed her way to the front. She didn't care that she had lost her authority. There was no way that Neville was going up there alone.

"Good. Best to take a partner, but not too many. If it's safe, then we'll follow," said Michael quietly, and Ginny felt enormously relieved for the support. She was afraid they would all want to follow again.

Ginny half-glanced at Blaise, a little guilty that he was being excluded from the leading position of his own club, but he didn't look back at her and only toed the dirt floor.

Ginny shrugged to Neville. This was it, whatever it was. No time to be scared now.

She reached upwards and was barely able to touch the trap opening and push it open. With a last glance at the members, she hoisted herself up through the opening, with Neville following behind.

First impression: dark. Ginny found herself among dusty storage boxes in a small room with empty wine and beer containers littering the floor. Neville followed her in, and before she could even stand up, there was suddenly the sound of a door crunching open and a stream of blinding light.

"Students from Hogwarts!" A gruff, irritated voice grouched, though Ginny could not see his face. "I thought I had closed that for good!"

Her eyes adjusted to the light, and the first thing that caught Ginny's attention about the tall, thin man was that his eyes, now narrowed in disapproval and surprise, were as sparkling and blue as Harry's were green.

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a/n

Here we go, and sorry for the wait! I put it in my profile, but in case you didn't notice: I was on a vacation hiatus. I'm very glad to be back in commission, trust me. We're approaching the end of the story, and it's definitely going to be finished before I start school!


	14. Stolen Kiss

**The Hourglass: Chapter 14 **

**Note: This was supposed to be one chapter, but it really got too long, so I've split it in two. A double update for you guys: enjoy! **

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Due to its reputation of filth, Ginny had only been inside the Hog's Head a select few times, but its innards never seemed to change much. The bartender was as disgruntled and unpleasant as ever, but after their first meeting, Ginny realized that he would prove much more useful than she had originally imagined.

"Hiding from the administrators?" he asked, as if with grudging interest when he learned of their situation. "And how long do you plan to stay there, exactly?"

"As long as possible," Ginny said. "We're almost self-sufficient except that there's no food."

"Yes, that tends to be an issue," he said gruffly. He probably understood the implications of Ginny's statement, but had not made any offer.

Neville was bolder with his attempt.

"Er…Sir," he addressed awkwardly to which the man scowled. "We were talking about how to get food into our hideout. And…this passage materialized and led us here when we mentioned that the kitchens were off-limits…"

"So come out and ask already," he said impatiently.

Ginny and Neville looked at each other, a little surprised by the man's odd behavior. "Well…would that be alright?" Neville tried confusedly.

"Would it be alright to ask?"

"…Can you supply us with food?" Ginny asked at last, seeing that the man wanted forwardness.

"No," said the bartender. He leaned back and propped his feet up onto the uneven wooden table between them. "Not until I understand the nature of your little blockade."

And so it went, with Neville and Ginny having to explain everything about the Room of Requirement, the defense club, and the Carrows' administration to the man, who listened with a sour expression and narrowed eyes. When they showed him the rest of the club members who were hiding back in the tunnel, he actually laughed out loud harshly.

"So much for the 'secret passage'. I'll have to block this off entirely after you leave, or the kids will never stop visiting."

Ginny noticed that his eyes lingered on the dusty Slytherins for much longer than any of the rest of them, as if in appraisal. However, he did not make any comment about the versatility of the club members.

"Does that mean you will you help us?" Ginny asked nervously, once he had finished to examine them all.

He leered a bit, and turned to face them, not too pleasantly. "What would you do if you were in my position?"

Ginny looked at Neville. It was true that by helping them, the bartender could get into trouble, but was there anything they could do to make the deal fairer to the man?

"We're hiding because there's no choice and we're staying because it's the right thing to do," Ginny said firmly. "There's no choice in the matter for us. You have the option to help or not."

The man shot a sharp look at her and she swallowed, but held her ground. It was after all the truth and they couldn't bribe him to help.

There was a long pause in which Ginny was afraid that she had blown it, but then a rueful and odd smile began to slowly creep across his face.

"All right, Missy. If you're that convinced, then why should I stand between your dreams? You'll be ragged rebels—but at least fed, ragged rebels."

It was not the answer Ginny had been expecting perhaps, but it was glorious.

And so, incredible and unlikely though she had thought it, they returned to the Room of Requirement not empty handed, but laden with crates of drinks and food from the Hog's Head. The overall smell of them was quite terrible, and Ginny personally was not convinced of the quality, but obviously they were not in any position to complain or barter.

They made two more trips that same day, once to pick up the rest of the supplies, and later to thank the barman once more. He was certainly an odd man. Brushed off their gratitude with a shrug and callous words that made it seem he didn't feel for their cause at all. Yet he must, to have given so much of his poor pub over to them.

The problem of food finally solved, Ginny was pleased to find that they really were completely independent now. There was no need to leave the room for anything, and as the days lengthened and turned into weeks, they gradually realized that they knew little of life outside the Room of Requirement.

This didn't particularly bother Ginny, who was sure that the regime had not improved at all in their absence, but she did feel a certain pang of regret when she thought of Professor McGonagall. She had done so much to protect Ginny all year, and now right at the end Ginny had run off, never to return. It did make her a little guilty, but not enough to leave their sanctuary.

Anyhow, most of these feelings were chased from Ginny's mind by the more impending issues of the club itself. Now finally back into working form, Ginny felt that she could no longer ignore the issue of Occlumency lessons, which had not taken place for over a month. Blaise was the person to approach about this, but he had been as aloof and distant from Ginny as the first day she had arrived. With the aid of Murtlap tentacles, his damaged face had gradually cleared up, revealing a permanent scowl beneath. He still rarely spoke to Ginny. While that had been acceptable for the first week, Ginny felt that things were getting out of hand.

So one gray morning a week later, when the rest of the members had left to visit the Hog's Head (the errand had become something like a fieldtrip for them), she seized the opportunity to speak with him finally. There was only so long that the others could linger in Hogsmeade before the barman kicked them out, but Ginny was determined to speak her mind to Blaise.

He had stayed behind to help clean up the room. Their last lesson, which had consisted of review spells culminating in a bout of Stunning, had left the room in a rather horrible mess, and he was silently mending the books that had fallen from the shelf, fusing the pages and spines back together while Ginny organized the knocked-over seats and tables. Keeping the Room of Requirement going as both a clubroom and a dormitory had given rise to lots of unexpected housework.

She gave him approximately ten minutes of quiet time before deciding that it was fair to speak.

"Blaise?"

He made a vague gesture with his head to show that he was listening.

"I want to restart the Occlumency lessons with the club. We need to start practicing it again," she said carefully.

He took a long time, smoothing down the cover of a spell book. After a while, he made a little noise of irritation and shook his head. "Why don't we just drop that lesson? I don't think it was going anywhere," he said quietly.

Ginny scowled. "How can you say that? We were finally making some progress before—" she stopped herself. She didn't want to bring up "before" what. It was before she had run off to the future, that's what. Ginny steadied herself and formulated the next argument. "That's not the point, anyway. We started the lesson, but never finished it. I don't want to be that kind of teacher."

He made no gesture of having heard this time, only carefully added the fixed book to the finished pile.

"_Blaise…_" she felt like a nagging mother and it was not pleasant in the least bit. Anger was dawning upon her as well. "This is serious. We don't have much time here alone. We have to practice _now._"

"Just teach them something else!" he snapped irately. "They're not going to _die_ if they can't do Occlumency!"

She rolled her eyes. "That's not for you to say!"

He ignored her and began mending a new page with his wand.

Ginny watched his motions with frustration and suddenly, she didn't know what came over her. It wasn't a normal impulse, but she couldn't help it. A sudden spurt of bitterness at the injustice of the situation and an almost hysterical frustration surged through her veins. She could control herself if she really wanted to…but she didn't want to. Wand hand, as if moving of its own accord, slashed towards Blaise's chair before she could stop herself, while her mind silently shouted the incantation.

Needless to say, Blaise was not pleased to suddenly find himself upside down, suspended in midair, as if an invisible hook was embedded in the hem of his robes.

"ARGH—what the _hell_, Weasley?"

Apparently this was the last straw for him, too, because he carved a violent shape in midair with his wand and a golden streak flashed before Ginny's eyes like a thin flame. She was able to deflect it, with a Shielding spell that ricocheted off it inches before it touched her forehead, skewing both the spell paths. Blaise's spell zoomed neatly into the wall behind Ginny, creating a deep burn mark with a hissing noise, but Ginny's spell knocked into the bookcase, and before they knew it, the air was full of the flying pages that Blaise had just spent so long repairing. A horrible screeching noise followed, alerting Ginny that the bookshelf was about to fall on Blaise, who was still frozen in his ridiculous position. She frantically let him drop and he landed heavily on his back, waving his wand wildly just before the shelf landed—

"IMMOBILUS!"

The bookshelf froze less than a centimeter from his nose.

There was a thick silence as they both watched the now-inert piece of furniture, petrified in the most absurd, gravity-defying position. Blaise was breathing rather heavily out of his nose and shot Ginny a look of purest antagonism before roughly forcing the bookshelf back into place with a jab of his wand. He overdid it a little out of anger, and the shelf slammed back into the wall with an awful scratching noise that made Ginny jump. She could already see black marks on the normally cream-colored walls as scars from the experience.

Blaise got to his feet and glared around him at the piles of books on the floor that he had just finished to organize. For a moment, it looked like he would raise his wand and re-organize them, but he just made a contemptuous sound of disgust, pocketed his wand, and started to stride to the other side of the room.

Ginny would have accepted nearly any reaction but this. The fact that after attacking him full-on, he was just going to continue his little cold-shouldering streak was more than she could bear. Putting away her wand as well, Ginny started after him, jogged to catch up and caught him by the shoulder.

"What is _wrong_ with you? Did I not make myself clear enough a moment ago?" she demanded.

He shrugged her hand off and turned around, regarding her with a dangerous, smoldering look. "We don't have anything to discuss."

"Well, I do need the number of whoever taught you to be a _prat_," Ginny shouted, not much aware of where her words were coming from. "I haven't done anything wrong since seeing you and your behavior is totally out of order!"

"Ginny. Stop talking. Right now."

"Shut up! I _won't!_"

To her horror, Ginny felt tears coming to her eyes, and she couldn't quite explain why, for she was not moved by sorrow. "This isn't fair, Blaise! I haven't done anything for you to treat me like this! I'm trying to make things better and there's more at stake here than just you and me—"

Then Ginny was cut off by the most strange occurrence of Blaise suddenly stepping forward and kissing her.

It might have lasted for mere seconds, or minutes, or days, for all Ginny knew. Shock was her first impression…and then more shock.

It didn't really occur to her to struggle, though she probably wouldn't have been able to do much. Blaise kept his hands planted on either side of her face, as if anticipating that she would try to escape and determined to hold her in place, if only for this moment.

His fingers were shaky; it was as if he was trying to suppress some nervous and powerful sentiments within, but was failing, and they kept pouring through, burning Ginny's skin. She found that even though part of her mind wished that this was Harry, there was something impossible to refuse in Blaise's manner—something that wouldn't let her pull away even if she had wanted to. Despite her frantic mind, her body began to relax, and she even found herself responding eagerly, leaning in to his embrace hungrily, desperately, as if she were drawing something like life from him. So irresistible and fascinating and overwhelming and unlike anything she had ever experienced before…

And then it was over. He broke away; pushed her face back from his, really and regarded her with the most peculiar expression. It was as if he was afraid to believe that had really just happened. That he had been accepted.

Ginny, for her part, was breathless and dazed and started blushing as she realized that she missed the contact. She found that she didn't know where to focus her eyes. He still hadn't said anything to her. Did this mean that he actually liked her, or was it just another one of his ways of just messing with her mind, trying to make her see black where there was white? That possibility sounded hateful even in her mind, but she couldn't help entertaining it, knowing that Blaise was capable of more deception than she had previously thought.

"Blaise…" for some reason, her voice came out thin and wavering and she stopped to clear it. The burning sensation was returning to her eyes and she was afraid to meet his. Her lips parted and then came together for the question she really wanted to ask.

"Blaise…why did you come here without me?"

She didn't know why. But after what had just happened, she didn't want to ask if he loved her. She just wanted to know the answer to this question.

His eyes, which had been attentively focused on hers, took on a shadow of graceful confusion and astonishment that this was the only thing she wanted to know. "Why did I come to the Room of Requirement without you, you mean?" he echoed in disbelief.

She nodded, eyes glued to his.

Long pause.

"…You left _me_, Ginny," he answered finally, looking troubled by her worried expression. "I didn't know if you were ever coming back, what with the number of times you had disappeared on me." He stopped and looked in confusion at her pleading face. "Did you think I had abandoned you or something?" he asked, his voice laced with surprise and maybe even vague amusement. "No. I never left you, Ginny."

It was a simple enough statement, but Ginny could read into it and understand what he meant. With a pang, she realized that all the things the older Blaise had told her must be true. She swallowed, the guilt coming back though she had sworn it away.

"I never meant to leave you guys for so long," Ginny croaked, gripping his forearms and really wishing that her voice would return to normal. "I was only trying to help. Please believe me."

Blaise said nothing, but tentatively took Ginny's clamped hands off his arms and held them both between his own, like an unspoken gesture of comfort.

They remained like that, Ginny didn't know how long. She just knew that she didn't want to move from this position for a good long time. There was nothing beyond the walls of this room. The books lay forgotten all around them. There was only this moment, this confusing moment of wondering what was going on inside Blaise's head and what he meant by all of this and where is this going and what's going to happen next. Did it even matter anymore?


	15. The Mirror

**The Hourglass: Chapter 15 **

Chapter 14 continued...

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The delicious spell of warm peace was broken by a banging noise as the door to the Hogsmeade passage flew open, nearly knocking it off its hinges. Blaise and Ginny both jumped and Ginny automatically dropped his hands, spinning around to see what the matter was.

"Ginny—you've got to come see, you won't believe it—" Neville was out of breath, panting like he had just run the entire length of the passage to get back here, which he probably had. "It's incredible—I didn't think it would actually work—"

"For God's sake, what is it!" Ginny cried, hurrying over. "Did you leave the others over there? What's happening?"

"No, no, they're here," said Neville breathlessly, gesturing to the open door, where Ginny now began to see the other members filtering in, though they didn't look nearly as tired or as excited. "Ginny—_it's Luna_!" Neville said.

"Luna? Neville, are you mad, Luna's not here…"

"No, I mean—look!"

He thrust the object in his hand up to Ginny's face, and she had to take it and hold it back to focus. It was Neville's DA galleon. And on the side of it, where Neville was pointing was…

"It's a message from Luna!" he bubbled excitedly, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet as he spoke. "All this communicating with the defense club members was making me wonder why I couldn't send a direct message to any galleon-holder. I've been trying to send her messages for a week, _and she's gotten them!"_

It was indeed miraculous, but Ginny couldn't help but be distracted from the optimism as she studied the spindly message on the serial dial. "But Neville…this says…"

"I know." The enthusiasm dropped from Neville's manner as suddenly as it had come. "I was just glad that it worked. But the message doesn't sound good."

Blaise came over behind Ginny, and she read the message aloud for everyone to hear.

_Neville, I got your messages on the DA coin. Tell the others that I'm alright—for the time being. I don't know where I am right now. After being taken off the Hogwarts Express, I was brought home; I think they wanted to meet Daddy, but he wasn't there. So instead, they brought me to this house where I've stayed in the basement for the past month at least. I've met Mr. Ollivander here and I've seen Wormtail more than once. I think that we're being kept as political—_

The message ended there, as no more would fit onto the thin perimeter of the galleon, already three lines full. Ginny looked up at Neville, who was now pacing with worry, his hand on his chin.

"We have to find some way of helping her. Do you think that Mr. Ollivander knows where they are?"

"She would have mentioned it if he did." Ginny's mind was working furiously to break from its dazed state, trying to piece together every clue. Luna and Ollivander were in the basement of someone's house, being kept as prisoners, by the sound of it. The Death Eaters had tried to take her home first, probably to get a ransom from Mr. Lovegood, but that had failed. And since Wormtail was there…could it be that she was at the _headquarters _of the Death Eaters? What had Luna gotten pulled into?

"Whose house would the Death Eaters use as headquarters?" Ginny muttered to no one in particular, just thinking aloud.

She had forgotten whom she was talking to. The room was suddenly full of whispers, and Ginny realized belatedly that it was the Slytherins, speaking together in muted voices with furtive eyes.

"Wait, do you guys _know?_" Ginny asked in disbelief, surprised by their secretive discussions. She hadn't really been expecting an answer, but the Slytherins seemed to know more of the country's dark business than every other house combined. Montague shot a look at Blaise and gave a very small nod. It was as if they were exchanging a secret approval of something.

"Blaise, do you guys _know_?" Ginny cried, turning to him. "How?"

Blaise folded his arms, but Montague was the first one to respond.

"It's not for sure…" he began. "But last year…well, Malfoy did brag a lot about how he wasn't coming back for school. Said he was joining the Cause head-on. We thought he was just shooting his mouth off, but he really didn't show. There's a chance…"

He trailed off, and Ginny blinked, putting two and two together. "You think the headquarters is the _Malfoy residence_?"

"It's almost certain, Ginny." Blaise spoke in a quiet voice, but nevertheless, everyone in the room turned to look at him. "He wasn't joking about anything else that happened last year. Look at Snape and Dumbledore."

There was silence as they all remembered the gruesome ending of last year. Ginny couldn't quite believe that this was all coming together…how lucky they were that the Slytherins had all these connections.

"I thought you guys were Malfoy's friends…" Ginny said uncertainly, feeling a little scared to take their advice on this particular matter. Not that she didn't trust Blaise.

Montague snorted. "Sure, if friends are little brats who buy onto the Quidditch team and brag twenty-four seven…"

Ginny swiftly remembered that Montague had been a teammate of Draco's. She had always sort of assumed that the rest of the Slytherins admired and liked Draco, but by the sounds of it, they had not been such good friends after all. Was it possible that Ginny had been wrong about the Slytherin year altogether and that the only evil ones were Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle?

"Well, how are we supposed to get there?" Neville cut in impatiently.

Ginny turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "Neville, we can't just go running of to the Malfoy manor…" she said, a little alarmed by the swelling conviction in his eyes.

"What choice do we have? She _needs_ us," he exclaimed.

What choice was there, indeed?

Ginny knew that with this message from Luna and the slightest clue of where to find her, she wouldn't be able to resist the urge to run and save her, but in the back of her mind, she knew it didn't make sense. There was no way they could just abandon the school and the defense club to break into the Death Eater-infested Malfoy manor, no matter if they had the help of the Slytherins or not…

"The bartender," said Ginny finally, the idea coming to her in a flash. Her eyes snapped open and she looked excitedly at Neville, who didn't seem to understand. "Neville, there's no way _we'll_ be able to get out of Hogwarts on our own…but maybe the bartender in the Hog's Head will be able to send someone! He's our only connection to the outside world at this point!"

Neville opened his mouth to argue, but seemed taken by this point. "He might even be able to smuggle us through Hogsmeade," he admitted.

That was not the option that Ginny anticipated, but she let it pass. "Let's go see him right now! Quickly!" she cried.

"What are we supposed to do?" asked Blaise with a raised eyebrow. "Won't you guys need help?"

Ginny blushed. "We should be fine—Blaise," she said awkwardly, realizing that he was looking for an excuse to accompany her. "We'll just go speak with the man quickly and be back soon. We aren't going anywhere else." Ginny promised, looking directly at Blaise as she said that. She thought she saw him half-smile at the innuendo, then shrug.

"Then let's go right away!" Neville said, completely missing this interaction and grabbing Ginny's arm.

"Don't forget to get some butterbeer while you're at it!" Michael called sarcastically, and Ginny laughed and saw Blaise roll his eyes before she and Neville hurried over to the door to the passage, and once more the two of them began to sprint back down the path to the Hog's Head.

The adrenaline pumped furiously through Ginny as they went, and she wasn't even sure she could attribute it entirely to Luna's unexpected message. It was just so much to be happening all at once. They could have found out the Death Eater's hideout, the bartender might be able to send contacts to save Luna, and Blaise…and Blaise might…

Ginny hadn't dared to think that everything the older Blaises had said had been true, but was this proof? _Did_ he really love her?

Love. That was a weird word. Maybe it was too strong. He might _care_ for her, but he certainly had an odd way of showing it, if he did. Then again, he was an odd person in general, and Ginny couldn't exactly claim to be the normal one in the relationship, what with disappearing to the future every five minutes.

She wasn't sure how she felt about it all. When she thought about it objectively, Blaise made her angrier than any other single person she had ever encountered…but at the same time…if it came down to events like this afternoon, it was clear that she couldn't resist him. How were they supposed to proceed working together from now on? He would certainly want some sort of answer from her, wouldn't he? If she liked him too or not? It made Ginny anxious to think about answering that question, and she sped up to catch Neville before he disappeared out of her view.

They both hammered on the trapdoor to the Hog's Head until the grimy bartender opened it with a scowl, hissing, "How can you already have finished those supplies? I gave you food an hour ago—" but they hurried in, shaking their heads.

"Sir, it's not the food, it's something else," Neville said in a rush, once they were out of the storage room and inside the general seating area of the pub. "We—"

Neville glanced at Ginny, as if suddenly nervous to make to the request.

"Well, what is it?" the barman asked impatiently. "I was in the middle of something important myself before you two barged in—"

"Sir, it's _this_," said Ginny, throwing caution to the winds and taking Neville's DA coin from him to show the barman. "These are charmed coins that we use to communicate with our friends—and one of our friends has sent us this distress message through it!"

The barman stared at the coin and its message for a good ten seconds. Then systematically, as if he were following orders, he turned away from Ginny and Neville and walked briskly to the front of the pub. They watched in astonishment as the barman locked the front door from within and seized the sagging curtains, pulling them over the windows in a puff of dust. Now shrouded in semi-darkness, and quite hidden from the rest of Hogsmeade, he turned back to them.

"Where did you get that coin?" he asked seriously.

Ginny and Neville looked at each other in confusion. "Our friend made them, Sir," said Neville. "They were originally for communicating club messages—"

"Do you realize how dangerous that coin could be in the wrong hands?" the barman cut them off, angrily. "You walk around with that, showing it to anyone around here like fools! _Do you realize that there's more at stake than you and your friend here?"_ His voice rose on the last part.

"…sir? We only showed it to you." Neither Neville nor Ginny could understand what the barman was on about. "We haven't been showing it to everyone," Ginny felt obliged to say in defense. "You're the first—and only because we need your help!"

The man sighed, and retreated behind the bar. He ducked down for an instant before resurfacing with a small, square mirror. "Does this person mean anything to you?"

He held out the mirror, and Ginny and Neville looked into it. They gasped.

Inside the mirror was Luna—or was it? She looked thin and cartoonish, as if it were a drawing of her rather than the real thing. She was hunched in the corner of a dark room, hair matted down and face buried on her knees. Next to her were two people: one a decrepit old man who seemed on the very verge of death, who was staring out a little window. And the other—

"HARRY!" It was Neville who shouted it out loud, and grabbed the mirror from the bartender, as if Harry could hear him if he shouted loudly enough.

"What is this? Where did you get that mirror! Are Ron and Hermione there, too?" Ginny demanded of the barman, a coldness pooling in her extremities. She was missing something here. Some very key point was being kept from her…

"Who _are_ you?" Neville demanded, looking at the barman as well. "How do you have this…whatever this is!" he gestured at the mirror.

"You still don't understand?" the bartended grabbed the mirror back from them, making Neville whimper. "I've just sent a house elf to their aid! You really don't know who I am?" he demanded.

Neville only looked on in confusion, but very gradually, the truth began to dawn on Ginny. Those blue eyes. A connection to Harry. Living so near Hogwarts. Helping them out as he had…

Ginny swallowed a lump in her throat, unable to stop the words coming up her throat. "You're Dumbledore's brother."

It was an announcement, not a question. Ginny wasn't quite able to believe it herself, even as she said it, but at the same time, she felt quite sure. Who else could it be? They had always heard tell that Dumbledore had a brother, and now seeing all the connections that this man obviously had to Hogwarts and to the Order of the Phoenix, nothing else fit.

"Aberforth," grunted the barman after a frozen period of silence.

He returned the mirror to its spot behind the bar and Ginny had the mad urge to stop him.

"But that's—that's—"

"I bought that mirror from Mundungus Fletcher over a year ago," said Aberforth shortly. "It's a two-way. Sirius Black had given the other half to Harry Potter years ago."

"So you've…known where he is all along?" Ginny said in astonishment.

"Of course not," said Aberforth irately. "He only has a shard of his mirror left—and he keeps it in a pouch most of the time, so I can't see anything. I only just got through to him now because it fell out in a scuffle."

"And you've sent…a house-elf to help them?"

"Dobby," Aberforth said. "Potter knows him personally."

Ginny's breathing began to slow, but the relief that washed over her was not completely comfortable. "So they're all there," she whispered. "Harry, and Ron and Hermione, and Luna and all of them!" she shook her head. "They probably were trying to help Luna. They're all going to be saved!"

"We…don't have to go after Luna," Neville echoed, understanding. "Aberforth's taken care of it. They're all safe."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Aberforth interrupted ominously. "With an incredible amount of luck, they'll escape from that manor in one piece. But where do you think they'll head after that?"

The brief balloon of relief that had swollen in Ginny's chest started to contract in fear again. "What do you mean?"

"Got themselves caught by Death Eaters, didn't they?" Aberforth said scathingly. "What kind of activity would get them in that kind of trouble?"

Ginny knew what kind of activity would do it. "But they've been chasing You-Know-Who all year," said Ginny. "It's why they didn't come back to school. Why's it suddenly more dangerous now?"

"All I've seen of Potter—besides this cry for help—is the inside of his bags," Aberforth explained. "It's not an informative position, but every now and then it's revealing." He looked at them seriously. "Potter's found out about the Hallows. I've seen the ring in his bag."

Ginny stared at him. This sentence made so little sense, she didn't even know where to begin.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Ginny finally.

Aberforth sighed again. "You don't have to. Just know this: Potter and his friends have discovered a great secret and it's going to lead them on a dangerous run—my brother made sure of that," he added contemptuously. "There's only one place they're heading if they escape from the Malfoy manor."

"And where's that?" Neville asked.

Aberforth gave them a moment. "The very place that you've spent so much time hiding from."

It took a long time for these words to sink in. Ginny finally spoke after she realized the warning.

"You think….Harry is coming to Hogwarts now? After he escapes?"

"I know he is," said Aberforth. "Sooner or later. But I think sooner."

Her heart began to thud and Ginny knew it was true as well. It was all coming together. The older Blaise's warnings—the Battle of Hogwarts—the end of the school year was upon them—and now, Harry was coming. Aberforth had seen it. Dobby would save them from the manor and they would come here and die in the Battle of Hogwarts. Destiny was unfolding right in front of Ginny's eyes and she was paralyzed, unable to do anything about it.

"You should return to your school," Aberforth said after a long pause. "Your friends will be expecting you. Rest assured that Potter and your friends are safe for now. But he'll be coming. And you'll have to be ready, then."

They left the Hog's Head in a dream state—or at least, Ginny did. If she had thought there was much to think about before, it was nothing compared to how she felt now. The bartender of the Hog's Head was Aberforth Dumbledore. He had sent Dobby to save Harry, Luna, Ron, Hermione, and Ollivander from the Malfoy manor. And now the Battle of Hogwarts and Harry's arrival could be happening any day….

It was too much to take. Neville shot nervous sidelong glances at Ginny all the way back, both of them in an anxious state, although technically the impending danger had passed.

It was happening too fast. Much too fast. Ginny had known the Battle of Hogwarts was coming, but she had been expecting some time to _prepare_! Now it was right upon them—there was no time at all!

Ginny felt sick, almost lightheaded with desperation as she tried to see a way out of this mess. Was it possible for them to prepare for the Battle of Hogwarts with so little time? Was there anything they could do? Or was Harry _destined_ to die, and Hogwarts to fall?

Ginny would not be able to bear it if this last things came true. Knowing it was coming and unable to stop it…she would not be able to stand it. As she walked, Ginny realized that there was only one option open, now that the Battle was so close, and they so unprepared. It was not the option she wanted to pick. She had sworn never to give in to it again. But there was no choice. There was no one…_no one_ else in the whole world who could possibly help her now, except perhaps him.

As Ginny and Neville approached the light at the end of the tunnel that signified the Room of Requirement, Ginny saw her only choice before her eyes, if there was to be any hope of preventing the bleak future that she had experienced first-hand. She had to go see the older Blaise. One last time.

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a/n

Whew. That was a long chapter.

And that's the first time I've ever seriously tried to write a kissing scene, or one that I actually wanted to be compelling. Do you think it came out okay? Kind of nervous about that part...


	16. Shared Fate

**The Hourglass: Chapter 16**

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Getting out of the Room of Requirement without anybody noticing would not be easy this time. With that many people living together, there was virtually no time of the day in which everyone was asleep or otherwise too occupied to notice Ginny's absence. Maybe some hour in the dead of night, but even that wasn't certain since everyone had different sleeping schedules.

Neville was the only one who would know what had happened. He was her confidant for the mission, with the duty to cover for her if she returned later than intended. The plan was to first sneak out into the Hogsmeade tunnel and spin the hourglass there, where no one would see her. This way, she could already be in the Hog's Head when she came out in the future.

It was a horrible feeling, to be doing the very thing she had sworn never to do again. And without telling Blaise about it. But how…_insane_ would it sound to the others? "I'm going to the future to save the present?" No, there was no way she could tell. They might even try to stop her from going, and that was not an option.

On the designated night, Ginny slipped out and through the doorway after bidding goodbye to Neville. All the way down the tunnel, she repeated her goals over and over in her head. They were the only things giving her focus, allowing her to continue putting one foot in front of the other. Nevertheless, insecurities and worries about what would happen if she messed up the time-travel on the way back littered her mind. She couldn't afford to dwell on them. The Battle would be a _certain_ loss if she did not at least try to get help.

Ginny stopped. She was under the trapdoor to the Hog's Head. She pushed up on the wooden square with as light of a touch as possible. It was very late—there was hardly a possibility that Aberforth would hear, but she didn't want to take any chances. She lifted herself through the narrow opening and replaced the trapdoor quietly as possible. Out with the hourglass. A deep breath.

Holding the chain taut in front of her, she gave the hourglass a gentle flick with her finger. It was so light that the motion sent it reeling around the chain for a full turn, and then started into a second loop….

The storage room was already so dark that Ginny couldn't see it dissolving into blackness as the familiar rushing sensation took over like an invisible harness had her round the waist, pulling her into some dark tunnel.

When the spinning stopped, the surroundings looked so identical to the ones she had left that Ginny didn't feel as though she had moved in time at all. The only change was that a ribbon of golden light shone from under the door, meaning that the bar outside was open. Ginny dropped the time turner back down the front of her shirt before whispering over to the door. Her fingers were about to land on the handle when something made her falter: the sound of voices coming from outside.

Somehow, it did not seem like a good idea to barge out of the storage room while people were standing right outside. Ginny waited by the door, holding her breath and trying to catch the muted words as they filtered through the dusty wood.

"—That's it now, just through here and there won't be any problem at all."

A dry, humorless laugh of derision followed, and Ginny's eyes widened: she had heard the sound several times before. It belonged to Aberforth Dumbledore.

"And then it's all over, is it?" His voice had a jeering, mocking edge to it. "You'll let us all live fine and happy elsewhere in London if we just evacuate?"

There were whispers, and then another voice spoke, stern and deep.

"This is your last warning. You received the notice of eviction over six months ago and the Ministry will not tolerate—"

"So what if I don't go?" Ginny could perfectly imagine Aberforth leaning casually against the bar outside with that derisive look as he spoke. "Will it be out by the ankles? In chains? Or have you fools finally come up with something more civilized?"

There was silence in the room. Ginny thought she heard the deep voice murmuring something, but it was difficult to catch. She frowned, leaning closer, pressing her ear against the door—

BANG.

Ginny nearly shrieked at the sudden noise erupting from the main room of the pub. She managed to bite her tongue just in time, but they probably wouldn't have even heard over the noisy scuffle that was now taking place. Footsteps shuffling and scraping and bumping noises punctuated by the sound of Aberforth snarling gave Ginny the impression that whoever was outside was trying to forcibly remove Aberforth from the bar.

"STUPEFY!"

Ginny couldn't even tell whose voice had called the spell, but the noise diminished following a loud slumping noise. Someone had been hit.

More cursing and murmurs—then the horrible sound of something heavy being dragged across the floor.

"Old fool. It'll be life, for this."

"Or not."

They both laughed and with a squeak and a rushing of air that made the trapdoor creak, Ginny realized that whoever had won had opened the front door of the Hog's Head and was leaving. It was now or never.

Hoping that they were too preoccupied with the body to notice a door opening, Ginny slipped her hands into her pocket and removed the crumpled, absurdly bright invisibility hat, jamming it onto her head.

She turned the knob of the door and let it swing open with a creak, so that it might appear to have opened of its own accord.

No reaction. Slowly peering out, Ginny saw the backs of two men in black robes, just leaving through the entrance of the pub, as she had expected. Aberforth stood between them, but his drooped posture told Ginny that he was not conscious.

As expected, the men did not notice the little door opening as they spoke to one another and steadied the body between them. Quick as a flash, they both turned on their heels and disappeared, along with Aberforth. It looked like the protective charms on Hogsmeade were gone.

Ginny looked around the now-empty Hog's Head, a quiet sort of panic taking over. A table was overturned and many chairs were awkwardly scattered in the brief scuffle, but overall it was not obvious that the owner had just been forcibly evicted. And looking outside, it did not seem that anyone had heard the affair, or cared if they did. She gulped and headed towards the front door, before carefully stepping out.

As soon as she did so, her ears were assaulted by the screaming of sirens, and she was grateful for the cover of the invisibility hat. It sounded like some kind of raid was going on. Ginny skirted along the edges of the buildings, feeling as though the shadows could afford her some extra protection that the invisibility hat missed.

It must be quite close to present day, Ginny realized. If evictions and raids were still taking place, the wounds of the Battle must be quite new.

Her hands clenched into fists under her cloak. What she wouldn't have given to leap out of the storage room and help Aberforth, but the risk of getting caught by those men was too great. It could cause more trouble than Aberforth would even appreciate.

She stumbled on out of the village with only half a mind for what she was doing. The scene in the Hog's Head had been more than a little disturbing and she was anxious to put as much distance between herself and the sirens as possible. This new Hogsmeade was possibly the most dangerous one that she had ever encountered. Every few meters, the ground was chalky and stained with some dark substance that Ginny didn't dare to examine more closely, for fear that she would gag. Everything was so…fresh. New and painful.

A jolt of fear seized Ginny when, upon arriving at the cave and summoning the Knut, she found it dark. For a horrible moment, she thought that Blaise had not even moved in yet, but she quickly noticed signs of life and belongings strewn about. Blaise must have just stepped out. She would have to await his return.

Feeling that it probably wouldn't make a good impression if Blaise came home and found Ginny just sitting inside his cave, she retreated to wait outside.

The sky gradually faded from its current bright white into a sickly grayish color as the afternoon progressed. She didn't know how much time passed, for the sun did not make an appearance, but it felt like an hour; maybe two. The wind picked up as the day aged, skinning the top of Ginny's nose, but she didn't have the muffler or any other clothing to keep out the cold.

However long later—the sky had started to darken, so evening might have been approaching—Ginny was snapped out of her reverie by a whispering sound that brought her to her feet. The sound of a cloak being dragged along the ground.

She skirted over to the rocks sheltering the cave and peered to the other side. A figure in a dark cloak gradually materialized out of the gloom, picking its way up the mountainside. Ginny would recognize that posture anywhere: it was Blaise for sure. Her heart swelled with relief—but he seemed to be walking oddly, as if he were stooped over, carrying something heavy.

As he began to approach the bend, Ginny retreated back into the shadows with the invisibility hat and pulled out her wand. She had come up with an idea while waiting, of how to reduce the shock of the meeting. Ginny cleared her mind and imagined meeting Harry, Ron, and Hermione again for the first time in a year after the Battle of Hogwarts. She whispered the incantation.

Blaise stopped in his tracks when he rounded the last bend for the cave and found a silvery-white horse guarding the entrance. He froze in place. With a flumping noise, the things that he was holding jumped from his arms; folders of some sort, with their contents spilling out over the pebbled ground. But he paid no attention, straightening up and stepping over them towards the horse.

"Ginny Weasley." It was not a question. His voice rang with shock and something else that Ginny couldn't name.

"You knew I was coming. Here I am." She spoke and was surprised to find her voice was magnified and seemed to come from the horse, rather than from her own mouth.

"Where are you?" he turned like a blind man, seeking her out sightlessly.

She hesitated. "You won't attack?"

"I got your letter."

She slowly reached for the hat and removed it, appearing before Blaise in the shadows of the clearing.

He looked at her as though he had never seen her before, his mouth moving in delicate unspoken words. "…you really came."

"You didn't believe me?" she asked, trying to sound lighthearted. She took out her wand and dismissed the Patronus.

"Would you have believed that letter if _you_ had gotten it?" he asked.

She laughed nervously. "Maybe not."

There was an extended and extremely awkward pause as they both considered the unspoken element of this visit. Blaise must surely know why she was here, why she had come back…

He was only watching her with a longing sort of expression. She raised her eyebrow at him and he shook his head as if to toss off an unpleasant thought. "I'm sorry. Let's go in."

"What about those?" she asked, automatically stepping over to his side to help him amass the fallen files and papers.

"I've got it—" he made a move to beat her to it, hastily grabbing the papers up and apparently not caring that they were getting stained with dirt, but he was not quite quick enough. Something on a file caught Ginny's eye, though she only saw a flash of it.

"Is that a _Ministry seal_?" she asked curiously. It had looked like a coat of arms printed over the front of the folder.

"What?" he hesitated momentarily, which was a mistake, because Ginny managed to pluck the file from his arms and examine it for herself.

"It is! They're Ministry files! How do you have these?" she asked, turning her puzzled eyes to his for some answer. "It's all run by the Death Eaters by now, isn't it? Did you steal them?"

Blaise swallowed and it seemed like some shutter behind his eyes closed. "I didn't steal them," he said.

"Then how…" she trailed off as he didn't look away and seemed to be trying to communicating something with his expression. A nasty thought popped into her head before she could stop it. "Why do you have these, Blaise?" she asked slowly.

"Get in the cave. I'll explain," he said seriously, snatching the paper back from her and standing up. "This isn't the place."

Although it felt wrong, Ginny obeyed, sensing that it was not a good idea to start a row out here in the open. They both entered the cave, and Blaise immediately took the paperwork over to a trunk and dumped the whole lot of it in before shutting the lid forcefully. He turned back to Ginny with the same peculiar, wistful look.

"What was that all about?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You turn up from the past and it's _your_ turn to ask questions?" was his response.

"You said you would explain."

He hesitated again, and it suddenly struck Ginny how very young this Blaise seemed. Indeed, he was nearly indistinguishable from the present-day Blaise.

"I got those papers from the Ministry because I was just there," he finally said evenly. "And yes, it's run by Death Eaters. And yes, I'm accepted there."

He hadn't technically confirmed her unpleasant suspicion, but he was extremely close.

"…are you working for the Ministry?" she asked softly.

"Not working." He sounded irritated. "From time to time you have to show up to maintain face."

"Maintain face? Face of _what_?"

"Face of lineage!" he hissed through gritted teeth. "All my connections since I was a child work there. They accept me, invite me over. There's nothing else left. The only reason I put up with it is to get an inside view."

"Oh, of course. There's an inside view, now." The layers of the situation were frustrating to Ginny.

"Those are valuable papers," said Blaise shortly, jabbing his finger towards the trunk that was now securely shut and stepping away from it. "And good information for anti-government groups."

At the mention of resistance groups, Ginny felt herself calming a little, even though it didn't really ameliorate the situation. "You're in with both of them?" she asked slowly as it began to make sense. "The Ministry _and_ the anti-Ministry groups?"

"Something like that," he said coolly. He seemed irritated by all these questions.

It was coming together, at least. The 24-year-old Blaise had mentioned something about switching sides to incite revolution, though he had never explained it fully. By the looks of things, the truth was that Blaise was a double-dealer. He was working for both groups to gain inside information about each. But before Ginny could ask anything else, he was speaking again.

"I suppose I'm allowed to ask a question now?"

"I…" she sighed, a little embarrassed. "Of course. Anything"

"Where on earth did you get a time turner and why'd you decide to come here of all places?"

"…I thought it would be a nice vacation spot. What else?" she said sarcastically.

He gave her a look and she rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter where I got it. And I think you know why I'm here, Blaise," she said. She did not intend to beat around the bush this time.

He did not respond, and Ginny felt her lips getting dry as she tried to keep her voice tempered. She wanted to present the argument in a calm manner. That would yield better results than if she started shouting.

"It's already nearing the end of April back in my time," she explained. "I've gotten a distress signal from Luna Lovegood and a message from Aberforth Dumbledore that Harry is coming back to Hogwarts."

"The owner of the Hog's Head?" Blaise asked carelessly, as though that were the only part of her speech he had registered. "He was going to be evicted any day now…"

"It was today. I saw it," said Ginny. She saw Blaise look up in surprise, but refused to succumb to that tangent. She had to finish what she wanted to say.

"And so…the point is that the Battle of Hogwarts is coming up any day…"

He averted his eyes.

"And I came…"

"You came here so that I could give you advice on how to win since I've already been through it once." Blaise finished her sentence for her, enunciating with a staccato bitterness that Ginny had not expected to hear.

Oh, no. She had been afraid of this. It was the 21-year-old Blaise all over again. Why? _Why_ was there this reluctance in his manner, this uneasiness, this resistance to giving any help or information…? She tried to remain calm as she formulated the next point.

"I know that you don't want to make things worse than they are," she said, remembering how defensive Blaise had gotten last time about the Battle of Hogwarts. "But at this point I've given up trying to stop the Battle from happening. I just need to know how we can protect Harry. And the defense club."

_And my family, and the teachers, and the other students, and Luna, and the Order of the Phoenix…_ Ginny uneasily checked off the complete list in her head.

"For God's sake, Ginny."

Blaise folded his arms and frowned at the cave entrance, as if looking out at something far away that Ginny couldn't see. "What do you think I was doing during the Battle anyway? Watching everyone and taking notes? I was in one room for most of the time and I never left the west wing of the castle. I didn't witness what happened to the others."

"But surely you have statistics?" Ginny pressed, after taking a steadying breath. "How many were there? Did they attack in groups or one-on-one? Did You-Know-Who make an appearance? How might we form our fighting squads to best effect?"

"_Fighting _squads?" Blaise looked at Ginny as though she were crazy and she began to feel self-conscious, although she had initially thought it a reasonable question.

"Well, yeah! We don't just let them take us lying down…"

"Obviously not, but I wouldn't bother going through all the effort of making a little military," he said coldly. "You'll only feel worse when you lose."

"_When_ we lose? What makes you think we're _going_ to lose!" Ginny cried, finally stung to the point where she could not remain cool. His negativity was extremely disheartening. "We won't if you pull yourself together and help out!"

"It's not that, Ginny," Blaise sighed, dropping his head into his hands and rubbing his temples. "You can't outsmart destiny—"

"_Who said anything about out-smarting it?_" Ginny was nearly shouting by now, such was her frustration. "It's a reasonable attack, well-thought out—"

"I won't be able to bear it if it happens again."

"You like bearing it _now?"_

"It'll be too much!" his temper was starting to flair now and his eyes flashed in resentment.

"How can you be so selfish!" Ginny shouted in disgust, her anger rising beyond control at this point. "You don't care about Hogwarts at all! You don't give a damn if the whole thing gets incinerated all over again! You just want it to be predictable so you can come back to your _sodding_ cave and work two jobs!"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" he snapped. "It's easy enough for you to say, never having seen it!"

"Then why? _Why,_ Blaise, won't you help me save Hogwarts—"

"_Because you're dead, Ginny, that's why!"_

It was the first time Ginny had ever heard Blaise bellow like that; past, present, or future.

He broke off afterwards with an icy glare that was full of resentment and pain and collapsed onto the floor, crossing his legs and cradling his head in his hands.

Ginny stared at him, the initial shock passing and a numbness setting in as the impact of his words hit her.

She was dead. That explained everything. Why Blaise hated discussing the Battle of Hogwarts; why he always greeted her like he was seeing a ghost; why he treated her like she was made of glass. Her memory flickered back to the first time she had used the time turner, and she remembered how Blaise had looked at her. How he had said, "I thought I'd never—". She knew how that sentence was supposed to end now.

The silence between them lasted longer than she could remember this time. At some point, she wandered to his side and dropped down to sit next to him.

She wasn't a presence to him. She was a non-entity. She a girl who was about to die in a few days and wanted help with the Battle plans that were going to do it.

Ginny put her hand on Blaise's. He didn't look up. The hand of a ghost.

"How?" she asked finally. She didn't want to pry into his worst memories, but she had to know.

He took a few moments to regain his composure. "Bellatrix Lestrange," was the reply, voice a little muffled because his head was still in his hands. "She gets you. I wasn't even there."

The hollowness in his voice tells Ginny how long he's been regretting this, wishing it all away.

Then the emptiness was within Ginny, too. It was incredibly strange to find out that she was dead. Strange and beautiful and disturbing.

"What if I don't leave you?" she asked softly. "I'll stay with you the whole time during the Battle."

He seemed to attempt a grim smile, but only looked depressed. "If that had worked…"

Ginny understood now that this Blaise wouldn't be able to help her. "I'm going to take care of us," she said. "I'm sorry that you'll always be here, but I'm going to try to fix it for us."

It didn't seem to improve his mood. He took a deep breath. "They're all there, Ginny. All the Death Eaters, You-Know-Who. They catch us by surprise and we're not fighting together. We get singled out and fight alone. If I had known that you needed help, or if anyone in the club had known…"

Impulsively, acting more on the instinct that it was right than anything else, Ginny swooped forward kissed Blaise softly. It felt strange. He was Blaise, but he wasn't Blaise. He was the boy she had kissed a few days ago, but he wasn't. To him, she was a shell of someone who was lost forever.

"Stay here," he said when she had finished. "Don't leave. Just stay in this future with me. You'll be safe."

She smiled, though a pity deep as frost was filling her heart. "You would never have said that to me five years from now," she said. "I met the older you, remember? He knew that I had to go back and live in my own time. You've already helped me."

Blaise gave a twitch of his eyebrow. "If by 'helped' you mean told you how you die…"

He looked so dejected that Ginny felt the smile dripping off her face. "I'm sorry, Blaise," she said honestly. "You don't know how much I wish I could give you what you want. But I have to leave. You need me."

His smile was rueful, knowing that she meant him in the past. "Damn logic."

They sat there for a while longer, Ginny silently mulling over the information that she had received, though unable to ignore the air radiating from Blaise. When at last she told him she had to leave, he seemed to have pulled himself together.

"Do you want me to escort you? I don't want you to get into any trouble on the way…"

"Blaise, it's fine; I have the invisibility hat. Anyway, the Hog's Head is deserted right now. I saw Aberforth go."

He looked unconvinced. "You know how to use the time turner now? For sure?"

"I think…I'm starting to get it," she said, thinking guiltily of the ill-measured endeavors of the past. "The number of turns equals the years that you go or something like that."

"Then one turn ought to do it," he reminded her.

"I know, _Dad_," she said, only semi-teasingly.

He sort of smiled. "At least take my Patronus. It'll take care of you if there's any problem."

Before she could argue, he had whipped out his wand and produced the shining stallion that Ginny had seen the first time she came to the future. It landed gracefully, and pawed the ground delicately before shaking its mane and coming over to her side.

"Blaise…thank you," she said, watching its motions sadly.

He didn't reply, but looked her in the eyes as if trying to immortalize the image. Ginny understood. He had seen her die once already. And no matter how she changed the past, to _this_ Blaise, here and now, the girl he had loved would always be gone. There was nothing she could do about it.

"Goodbye, Ginny," he said at last, after finishing to take the mental picture and breaking eye contact.

She nodded to him and started back towards the entrance of the cave. The horse followed her soundlessly. She stopped just before leaving the cave and turned back one last time.

"Blaise…"

"What?" he was still watching her intently.

She smiled slightly and jutted her head at the horse. "We have the same Patronus."

He looked at her, and a ghost of a smile flickered onto his face. For a moment, he looked happy. The rarest of Blaise's expressions.

"I know."

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a/n

Ah, at last the whole truth comes out...

Fun Fact: this was the first chapter of the hourglass that I ever wrote/drafted. The whole idea for the story sprang from the idea of a person finding out that they were dead in the future from someone they loved. I just had to...fill in a couple of extra details to get the story going. ;D This took me a while because I lost the original story notes and had to re-write this chapter from scratch. Sigh.

It was a lot of effort, please review!


	17. The Nightmare

**The Hourglass: Chapter 17**

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Ginny opened her eyes.

The tunnel was silent. No sounds of people moving or conversing from above, nor tones of muted voices drifting through the door before her.

She had taken special care this time to spin the time turner _exactly_ the same way she had to get there, with the hope that she had finally gotten the time-skip right. She let her hand rest lightly on the rough wooden surface of the door to the Room of Requirement before gently pushing it open.

The calming, hushed noise of collective deep breathing met her ears. She sighed and let the door swing open fully, slipping inside the room quiet as a needle into cotton.

Looking across the mass of still bodies, one stirred.

Ginny froze for a moment, but upon more careful inspection, it was only Neville. He had been lying with his hands behind his head, presumably unable to fall asleep or waiting for Ginny's return. They made eye contact and he sat up slowly, a crooked smile creeping onto his face. He lifted one of his hands and held it out horizontally in front of him.

That symbol—she had made it. Back on the same day that she had left. Relief, now coming in waves so powerful that they threatened to make her delirious, flooded through Ginny. She leaned back against the wall and smiled weakly at Neville's curious and questioning face, but put a finger to her lips. Now was not the time to discuss it.

It must have been agonizing for Neville to have to wait for an answer, but he nodded, and she tiptoed over to her own spot and climbed into the makeshift hammock-like thing that they used for beds, arranging herself carefully in the middle and trying to relax her breathing. Neville watched her before descending himself, with a certain level of trepidation.

Probably it had something to do with the fact that she had skipped around the years and discovered that her life was about to end, but Ginny had a difficult time falling asleep that night.

She stared at the speckled ceiling for hours, ruminating over everything she had learned and wondering how it could possibly be put to use now. The surprising thing was that she felt calmer now about the Battle of Hogwarts than she had before. Probably she should have felt more afraid and reluctant to go out, but somehow it wasn't the case. In some inexplicable way she felt….peaceful. As though everything that was destined to happen was going to happen and nothing could really be done about it.

This was Ginny's one realization from her dealings with the time turner. There were so many different universes she had visited; universes that existed with the change of one word, or a different set of clothes for the day, and they all were real, yet none of them were real. Decisions could be made, but the other options would always exist in parallel universes. It was like being a leaf in the river of life, gently pulled along by the current and dreaming of the skies.

Of course, Ginny didn't _want_ to die, but somehow the prospect just didn't scare her as much as it might have a few months ago.

Plus, she figured, rolling onto her side, now that she knew exactly who was to do it, and how, it may be possible to change or even avoid the situation altogether. The Death Eaters would soon be prowling the hallways of Hogwarts. The important thing was to be prepared. She would have to send some kind of message to the Order for help; that was certain. They deserved warning. And what about….

Ginny faltered. The teachers. The thought of McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, or even Slughorn being ambushed was a painful thought. They would certainly do all they could to protect the school. But would it be enough?

It was a double-edged sword, this ability to know things before they happened. The knowledge could extremely helpful, of course, but with the awareness came a crushing feeling of responsibility. If _anyone_ died, Ginny would feel personally responsible for it.

These disturbing thoughts swirled through her mind for hours on end, driving all hope for sleep out of the question. At last, as the night began to fade into the light of dawn, she managed to doze off.

Dreams plagued her mind. Most of them were inky impressions of Hogwarts, Blaise, or the defense club, vanishing before she could even remember what they were about. However, one stood out, as it was one Ginny had had many times before.

She had started having this dream the summer after her first year at Hogwarts. She was in the Forbidden Forest trying to find her way back up to the school. There was some silvery blood on the forest floor, but every time she started following it, it would curve back around and only lead her to where she had been. On and on it went, with her desperately seeking the way out, but met only by dark trees in every direction. The sound of footsteps floated from ahead. But they were footsteps that only a non-entity could have, sounding more like breath on leaves than anything else. Like those of the memory-Riddle. She didn't want to see who it was, but at the same time, felt impelled to keep moving, enter that murky knot of trees before her where the mystery would be solved….

Some horn-like noise erupted from the other side of the room, and Ginny blinked, finding her eyes assaulted by the bright lighting of the Room of Requirement.

She felt extremely groggy and disoriented by the activity going on around her. Rubbing her eyes and sitting up, Ginny saw that most of the club members were up and in the workplace, discussing something together.

She felt vaguely drunk; as if she had had too much of Madame Rosmerta's oak matured mead the night before. Splinters of pain pricked the inside of her head and it was only very unsteadily that she got to her feet. Ginny suspected this had more to do with lack of rest than anything else, but it was still upsetting.

No one at all seemed to take note of her condition, naturally. As far as they were concerned, she had gone to sleep and woken up as usual. Nothing extraordinary had happened. Ginny stumbled to the washroom, feeling as though she had lived three days in one night. The remnants of the dreams and the visit to Blaise seemed to be mixing together in her mind, with the result that nothing made much sense. The only clear thing was that they needed to have a club meeting, immediately.

"Are you alright?" Blaise frowned concernedly at the sight of Ginny ready, but stumbling around twenty minutes later.

"Yeah…" she shook her head. "We need to have a meeting, right now."

"Why don't I do it? You look like you're about to faint," he said cautiously putting his hand on her shoulder.

"No!" she said, jumping involuntarily at the contact, which earned her a strange look. "I mean…I have to do it. I got a lead."

It sounded lame, even to her ears, but he merely shrugged and whistled to everyone else, making them stop in their tracks.

"Hey, listen! Special meeting, guys! Please, don't do that," Ginny said, unable to summon the energy to argue with the people who weren't finished with their spell practice and looked mildly disgruntled at being interrupted. "It's really important; just…listen."

It was probably more the desperation in the way that Ginny said it rather than the actual words that impelled the club members to obey, albeit reluctantly. Books were irritably flipped shut and the general gaze turned upon her expectantly as silence fell in the workplace. This was it. The only chance.

"Everyone…"

Ginny gazed around the club and it struck her how many members they really had. She found herself almost at a loss for words, examining the people who had acted as a pseudo-family for the past several weeks. All of them willing to listen and cooperate, to some degree, at least, and bent on the bettering of themselves and the school. Neville gave her a look, raising his palm, and she snapped out of her reverie.

"Guys," she said, knowing how strange this was going to sound. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "There's going to be a battle at Hogwarts. Very, _very _soon."

Statement One was followed by an expected moment of surprised silence.

Then a soft whispering sound, the quilt of various members muttering in shock and confusion under their breath, descended over the room. Ginny swallowed, wondering how to best rationalize this discovery in a way that would make sense to them.

"The bartender of the Hog's Head is Dumbledore's brother."

Statement Two. At this, the quiet muttering escaladed into a much louder chatter as people alternately displayed their surprise and disbelief. Most of them looked at Ginny as though she were going to suddenly grin and announce that she was joking.

"_Neville and I_," she continued, half-shouting over the volume. "Went to see him the other day for Luna and we found out that he's been in contact with Harry Potter for months. We found out that Harry's coming back here, and very soon. When he gets here, it's pretty much certain that Death Eaters and—and You-Know-Who will come here to try to finish him off."

At the mention of Voldemort, the chatter began to subside again.

"So obviously, the fact that we have a forewarning is a huge advantage. We'll have to go on the offensive as soon as the siege starts. We need to form battle plans as quickly—"

"_Battle_ plans?"

Higgs interrupted, a crisp skepticism lacing his words. "Since when is it _decided_ that we're going into battle for this guy, anyway?"

Ginny bit her lip. This was what she had been afraid of, among other things. To her, it was obvious that the only thing they could do was fight. To others, it might not make sense to risk their lives for a boy they didn't even know, especially when they knew perfectly well that they were safe inside the Room of Requirement.

"Guys…" her voice trembled a little. "I can't force you to fight. And I'm not going to try to force you. I know that some of you don't even know Harry," she felt a twang looking at the Slytherins, "but this isn't just about him. This is about Hogwarts."

"_What _Hogwarts?" this time it was a younger Slytherin, Baddock. He had never spoken much, but didn't look pleased with the way this conversation was going. "The Hogwarts we knew doesn't even exist anymore. It's only the Death Eaters' domain!"

"But don't you see, that's why we have to defend it!" Ginny exclaimed. "We have to take it back from You-Know-Who! Who taught you your first spell? When did you learn how to levitate? Where did you have your first feast? Think of Flitwick, Vector, the Great Hall, the Owlery, the lake…"

"What do you we've been doing in here all this time?" Blaise cut in, in a surprisingly forceful voice from the side. Ginny turned to him in shock, surprised to see him taking over. "This wasn't about us from the beginning, not really. We're getting stronger so that we can take back what was ours. Ginny's right; it's not just that _we_ belong here. Here belongs to _us_. How can we _not_ fight for it?"

A slightly shocked silence met Blaise's words and Ginny's awe was among it, not just because she was surprised he was taking the news so well. This certainly sounded nothing like the reason that Blaise had originally given for wanting to create this club. She remembered back at the beginning of the year, after Slughorn's party, the way he had followed her and presented his intentions. At that time, it had sounded like the club was about the personal improvement and saving ones own skin. Had Blaise changed so much over the course of this year?

…Of course he had. They all had, more than they knew. And perhaps it was possible that Ginny had not completely understood Blaise's reasons for starting the defense club in the first place.

In any case, most people seemed to regain their composure rather fast. Terry Boot shrugged. "I thought it might come to this ever since the first day," he admitted. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't ready for it."

Michael nodded. "It's just like the DA. Now we'll finally earn that 'A'."

Ginny hesitantly grinned, though Blaise looked confused by these words.

"I want us to work in groups to get ready. Unfortunately, we can't enlist the help of the rest of the school, but for now we can prepare ourselves. Get into groups of three and stay in them. No matter what happens, _don't leave your teammates_. _Never, _understand? We have to stay together and fight together if there's any chance of winning. We're going to practice dueling—"

_Thud. _

Every eye in the room was drawn, as if magnetically, towards the Hogsmeade passage entrance. Ginny stared for a good thirty seconds before it registered what she was seeing. The breath left her body.

It was over now. Slowly, she took a step back and tripped; Blaise darted forward and steadied her before she actually fell…

Nearly a year now since she had last spoken to him, or even seen him, Harry Potter was scrambling through the entrance to the Room of Requirement, followed by Hermione and Ron. Aberforth led them, his normally disdainful expression strangely bright and intense.

It was a rush of emotions all at once.

Shock.

Fear.

_Horror._

Then…peace.

It was over. It was all over now. Harry was here.

"Harry? HARRY! _I knew you'd come!_"

Neville burst out, quite beside him in delight, but the cry was virtually lost among the other shouts and screams of, "IT'S POTTER!" and the softer, but recognizable voices of Hermione and Ron.

Ginny found herself rooted to the spot. A few minutes passed of watching this scene, as if from a dream world, before she could gather herself. She drifted towards the madly gesticulating and quivering mob that had, in a matter of seconds, usurped Harry and hidden him from view. She skirted around the outside to see her brother.

"Ron!"

"Ginny?"

Ron broke loose from the crowd and stumbled over to her with Hermione following close behind, pulling her into a hug, much to her surprise.

"I—what's going on—" Ginny could hardly decide what expression ought to be on her face. On one hand, she knew that their arrival meant that the worst had happened—or was about to happen. On the other….she couldn't smother the ecstatic delight that was swelling inside her at the sight of them, threatening to levitate her off the ground.

"What'd you mean, _we_ should be asking what's going on in here—_blimey,_" Ron's jaw dropped as he took in the appearance of the Room of Requirement, which Ginny suddenly realized must look incredibly bizarre to new eyes. If the sight a living room-classroom was a surprise to him, however, it was nothing to the look on his face when he spotted the knot of Slytherins, backed into the wall, and nervously watching the activity on the other side of the room. "What the bloody hell are _they_ doing here?"

"Ginny, what happened?" Hermione asked in amazement, interrupting Ron. "We just met Aberforth—he showed us this passage back to the school, but we didn't think this room would be occupied—"

"I—we—" Ginny found herself at a loss for words, what with the incredible amount there was to tell. "You remember the DA?" she finally asked weakly.

Ron looked bemused, but Hermione's eyes widened in comprehension. "Ginny…you didn't…"

She nodded, and Hermione raised a hand to her mouth as if about to gasp and glanced back over at Blaise and his friends, who were watching the three of them with strange, not particularly friendly, expressions. "_How?_"

"There's…no way I can explain right now…what's going on, anyway? Where have you guys _been_ all year?"

"On vacation, what'd you think?" Ron said, earning himself a slap on the arm. "Well, I can't summarize the entire year! But you know what's been happening for the last couple months at least; Bill said he'd write to you. And you must know all about Gringott's by now—"

"_What?_" Ginny exclaimed in shock.

Ron and Hermione exchanged incredulous looks. "You don't _know_?" Ron asked.

"Ron, we haven't been out of this room for weeks! I haven't gotten a single owl, I don't have a clue what's happ—"

"Guys, we have to get out of here!"

Their conversation was interrupted by Harry himself, who had somehow managed to disentangle himself from the crowd. "We don't have much time, they might get here any minute and we still have to find it—"

"Harry!"

Harry's eyes met Ginny's and there was a moment in which they simply looked at each other. Strange and confusing feelings flooded her at the sight of his ruffled hair, green eyes as brilliant as ever though his glasses were smeared and chipped in the corner. She wanted so much to reach out, touch him, but at the same time…he didn't feel like the same person to her anymore. So much had changed this year and he hadn't been here for any of it.

Harry was clearly frazzled—that was an understatement. He looked little short of frantic, and was obviously in a terrible hurry to get out now.

"Ginny, we don't have time to explain," he said in a low, urgent voice that Ginny had missed for so many months. "I'm so sorry, but we have to leave right now; there's something we have to do—"

"I know."

He looked a little taken aback by this reply. "You know?"

"We all know," Ginny gestured around to her club and took a step back, then another, retreating towards the isolated knot of Slytherins, keeping her eyes on Harry as she did so. "We're here to help. We're ready to fight."

Harry looked in disbelief and worry around the room, his eyebrows contracting. "Ginny, you have no idea what you're—"

"We have _every_ idea, actually," Ginny cut him off. _More than you do, _she added in her mind_. _He didn't know what destiny he was up against, as she did_. _

"Well," Harry seemed to be running out of objections. Not only that, but he was clearly too impatient at the moment to put up much of an argument with them. "That's—but—there's something we need to finish. You'll have to meet up with us later—hide here for now!"

"_We've_ got it under control," Ginny said, raising an eyebrow in vague amusement at his attempt to control the club that she was leader of. "We'll be setting up here and join you later when it's time."

"Setting up?" Ron looked incredulous at her choice of word, as Hermione and Harry started off towards the exit. "It's not going to be a carnival, Ginny, you should stay here—"

She rolled her eyes, not even bothering to respond to that. They didn't understand.

"I'll help you!" Neville volunteered, rushing to the door to follow them out. "You guys haven't seen the way this school runs now; you're going to need it. I can send a message back to the club when it's good to come out—"

Harry snorted. "If by 'good' you mean when the school is under siege…"

"All the anti-Carrow students of Hogwarts are in this room, Harry!" Ginny called to him helplessly as he swung the door open. "Please be careful!"

Blaise's face twitched, as if in a scowl.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville disappeared out of the room, quickly shutting the door behind them and Ginny slowly turned back around to see the club. Most, like her, seemed to be in a loosely contained state of excitement and adrenaline, mingled with fear. It would be their first time outside the room in a long time—and into a battle like this. What might happen?

Ginny looked around at them, the dizzy, sick feeling, which had momentarily disappeared due to the shocks, coming back. "I guess that cuts our practice time short," she said, with a heroic effort to stay calm and composed. "Just form your groups and warm up. It's….time."

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a/n

argh...every time I think I'm done, I realize there's more I need to add to this story...

I think, however, we're looking at 2 more chapters. Huzzah!


	18. Plans Undone

**The Hourglass: Chapter 18**

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The wait was nothing short of excruciating. In the back of her mind, Ginny knew that it would be foolish to leave the Room of Requirement now and risk getting caught in some petty matter with the Carrows, but that didn't make standing around any easier. Especially while imagining Harry outside, facing unknown dangers. Of course, being caught by the Carrows would not be strictly _dangerous_, but it would certainly complicate the situation and make everything more difficult than it already was. For this reason only, Ginny forced herself to pace the Room of Requirement and await the signal from Neville.

So far, nothing had been decided concerning the Order of the Phoenix. Ginny was disheartened to realize that Bill must have been sending weekly owls, trying to contact her and keep her informed, but obviously she had missed them all, being in this room. It made her cringe to think of Bill's words falling into the filthy hands of the Carrows instead.

The club members had broken into their respective groups, formed on the basis of their familiarity with each other's moves, and were warming up. Ginny found it almost painful to watch and stole over to a corner of the room with her DA coin instead. Now seemed like an appropriate enough time to formulate a message to the Order.

The only Order members who were ex-DA members were George and Fred. They would be her only chance of communication with the outside world. If they got the message, it would surely travel faster than wildfire. If they somehow missed it….

Ginny tried not to think about what would happen, then.

She pulled out her wand and, carefully manipulating the serial dial with its tip, managed to produce a short message:

_Harry's come back; school is under attack. Enter through the Hog's Head. Hurry._

There was no need to add more. Fred and George would understand immediately, and Ginny would be very surprised if any less than the entire Order of the Phoenix and all of the Weasleys' extended family burst into Hogwarts as soon as possible. It may seem confusing to them why they should go to the Hog's Head, but Aberforth had returned to the bar after depositing Harry, Ron, and Hermione, so he would be able to meet them and explain before directing them into the school.

Speaking of directing _in_….

Ginny paused, thinking. It would be extremely useful if they could also use the Hogsmeade passage to transport innocent students _out_ of the school. Smaller chance of casualties and fewer people to protect. That was something they might have to consider once they got out of this room.

Still pensive, Ginny tapped the galleon sharply on its face, and it momentarily glowed red as the message emblazoned itself darkly into the side. She knew it was glowing and changing on all the DA coins.

There. Now all there was to do was wait some more and hope that Fred or George got the message. She felt nervous; after all, it wasn't _extremely_ likely that they still carried their coins around with them, but it was her only possibility at this point.

All this only intensified the suspense and made her feel even more on edge than before. She half-wished that Death Eaters would just barrel down the door to this room right now, so that they would all be put out of their anxiety. At least when they were fighting, there wouldn't be time to angst over the future or the past.

Ginny wandered aimlessly over to the bookshelf and placed her hand on its cool surface, remembering all the things that had taken place in this room this year. Most events had been witnessed by this very shelf. It almost felt like a person to her, a personality in the room who knew all the secrets of Blaise and the hourglass.

Oh, the hourglass. Ginny's thoughts flickered to the fighting that was soon to take place. The running, the jostling, the frantic shooting of spells in all directions—what if by some chance the hourglass got hit and spun? It might ruin or save everything, depending solely on chance…

Last night's nightmare flashed into her mind. The Forbidden Forest came swimming back as though she were asleep again, just as twisted and dark as ever and without any exit. Dark tunnels in every direction; a symbol of pure futility.

Ginny's fingers traced the hourglass and the chain on the back of her neck. Quickly, before she could change her mind, she pulled it off, lifting it neatly over her head and wrapping it in its own chain. She then carefully stuffed the small object out of sight between two thick spell books on the shelf. It ought to be safe there until after the battle—no one would bother it, at least. There wouldn't be any fighting in this room anyway.

Ginny took a few tentative steps back, willing herself not to grab at the hourglass again. She couldn't take it with her, and that was final. Not just for practical reasons, but because it would be…wrong. She had already changed this future many times. It was time for fate to take its turn.

She briefly bowed her head to the bookshelf before turning around. Most of the members were still working, but Blaise was watching her with an appraising sort of look, his wand untouched, hands at his side. Ginny sighed and ambled over.

"Alright?" he asked as she slowly approached.

"…yeah," she said.

He shook his head and gave her a look from the corner of his eye. "Of course you're not. There would be something wrong if you were. But you will be." He spoke not arrogantly, but simply as if he were stating a fact that no one could deny.

She looked up at him, trying to keep the words down, but they were bubbling up faster than she could control them.

"I'm scared," she admitted, not caring how this confession would affect his opinion of her.

And it was true. She hadn't realized how the hourglass had been affecting her mindset these past months. It hadn't seriously changed her, but it had altered the way she saw things. It was inevitable. If in the back of her mind, she always knew that there was a second chance, everything seemed much less important and impending. But this time would be different. There would be no time-turner.

Blaise did not look at all surprised, but merely nodded. "Me, too."

That was not the answer she had been expecting and she started, looking at him in surprise. It was so unlike Blaise to admit anything about his feelings, especially something potentially so emasculating. Then again, he had definitely been more open ever since the kiss.

"But it's okay," he added at last, with a shrug and a vague attempt at a half-smile. "I mean…it's okay to be afraid. With you."

Strange.

It seemed like the volume had been turned down in the room. Ginny just watched Blaise after this odd profession. His eyes looked strangely bright in a way she had never seen before.

She diffidently opened her mouth. "I…"

_Love you. _

"…hope you're right." She frowned, wondering why those other words had popped into her mind.

The smirk was more pronounced now, and he raised an eyebrow. "Aren't I always?"

She blinked, a little thrown by the change in his tone. "Oh, right. Of course," she said, as dryly as possible.

He smiled vaguely and looked at her and back at the bookshelf, as if he knew what she had recently hidden there. "Any particular reason for your sudden cold feet?" he asked.

She laughed humorlessly, wondering how to explain without actually explaining. A certain idea had been troubling her for a while, and Blaise ought to know about that.

"I walk into the room. It's empty, so I leave," Ginny said slowly.

That earned her a thoroughly perplexed, questioning look.

She bit her lip and continued, "I walk into the room. I see the club members, so I start the lesson."

He still looked nonplussed.

She sighed. "I walk into the room. You're here, so I come to talk to you."

"Ginny," he shook his head. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm explaining why I started feeling scared," she said tartly. "Every action in the world has a reaction. For every insult, there's a retort. For every situation we encounter, there's a logical set of events that follow as a result."

He looked as though he were starting to understand. She went on, her voice trembling a little:

"And it's mad when you realize that all the reactions in the world could be changed just by making a _tiny_ alteration to the original action."

She had voiced it. This was what was really bothering her about her trips with the time-turner. How everything in the world could depend on nothing at all, or something so stupid that you didn't even notice you had done it.

Ginny's bright brown eyes met Blaise's darker ones. "I'm just scared of making a tiny mistake that will set off a whole chain of irreversible events," she muttered.

He looked thoughtful and remained silent for a while, digesting the idea. "Fair point," he said at last. "And it's good to remember that every move counts. But make sure you know what to forget," he added, his expression darkening. "If you think about everything that _could_ happen, you'll miss what _is_ happening."

He wasn't just talking about the Battle of Hogwarts, Ginny knew.

Her heart began thumping faster and faster as she realized that this had more to do with their triangular relationship with Harry than with the situation at hand. And he was right. She had spent a good part of this year missing what was happening with Blaise, merely because she had been more interested in indulging in the memory of Harry. The strange thing was, she didn't feel particularly guilty about it. Ginny's eyes widened slightly as it seemed that Blaise was leaning forward…

"Ouch!" she jumped as she felt a burning sensation in her pocket. _Why _now_, of all bloody times? _she thought to herself, even while blushing and retrieving the DA coin. She held the scalding piece of metal by the tips of her fingers to read what was written on the serial dial. It had to be from Neville, after all. Her heart jumped into her throat and the word took form.

_Now_

So this was it.

Ginny looked up at Blaise, and saw that a change had come over his face. The brief, unguarded look had disappeared, replaced with an alert, wary expression.

"It's time!" he called, his voice resonating over the babble of the rest of the club, silencing them before Ginny could even make a move. "We've gotten the signal! We're going out, now!"

A momentary pause, then there was an immediate, almost riotous scramble for the door. It was almost inhuman; Ginny had never seen the club members behave like this: mutinous, animal-like, enthusiastic to the point of irrationality. They were on some kind of higher level, impassioned for the fight. All of them drawing their wands and rolling up their sleeves.

"WAIT!" Ginny shouted at the top of her lungs, but it was to no avail. They were beyond listening to her at this point. Blaise seized Ginny's hand and wrenched her towards the door before they were stampeded by the rest. He grabbed the handle and nearly jerked it out of the door with the amount of force he used—

And they were out.

Screams enveloped Ginny's ears the moment they stumbled out into the hallway. Some of them were the club members', shouting and crying joyfully for their release from the Room of Requirement. Others were echoes of screams that were floating from other parts of the castle, but Ginny couldn't see their source.

Surprisingly, the corridor outside the room was empty. Probably the patrols had been relaxed since this was a state of emergency. Neville hadn't specified what had happened, but Ginny was going to assume that the Death Eaters had been summoned already.

"DON'T LEAVE YOUR PARTNERS!" Ginny managed to call before the club members dispersed in their groups, splitting down the hallways and dodging up or down different staircases to find the source of the disturbances. "NO MATTER WHAT—

She gave one last look to Blaise and let go of his hand. He had been grouped with two of his friends with whom he had practiced magic since first year. It made sense, since they knew each other's styles very well, but Ginny still felt uneasy and wished that they had been grouped together.

"Ginny, it'll be fine," Blaise said firmly, as if reading her thoughts. He nailed her with one of the searching looks. "Seriously."

"I know."

He gave her one last look before splitting, and Ginny staggered back, turning to her own group mates, Michael and Lavender. "Let's go."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Ginny couldn't help but feel a little exhilarated as she ran down the hallways. It was almost like being a first-year again. There was nearly no one in sight as they went, and while this was a little eerie, it afforded them a freedom that they had not had for a very long time, to run and slip and make as much noise as they wanted.

They tore down the staircases towards the entrance hall, following the sounds of screaming, and as they went, the rumbling sound of voices grew louder and louder.

When they jumped the last set of staircases and landed on the second floor, turning into the main hallway, Ginny was forcefully knocked off her feet as a figure clothed in black ran straight into her.

"AR—!

Before she could even finish the admonition, she realized in horror that it was one of the last people she could have wanted to meet at this point: Snape. The blood drained from her face, but to her surprise, he did not stop for even a moment, or change his expression from the current one of contorted disgust and worry. In fact, such was his hurry that he did not seem to even realize that he had knocked into someone. Quick as a flash, he bolted past them, and Ginny turned to watch him go in confusion, because unless he was going upstairs, the corridor was a dead end…

The blur that was Snape reached the arch-shaped window at the end of the corridor, and before Ginny realized what she was seeing, he had flung himself out of it, leaving the three students behind gaping in astonishment.

"COWARD!"

Ginny's shock was interrupted by the sound of a familiar voice as Michael pulled her back to her feet. The three of them turned to see Harry, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout all together, running towards the window.

"He got away," said Sprout in disgust, and Ginny followed her gaze to see a shadowy, bat-like blur in the distance out the window, that must have been Snape.

"Professor McGonagall!" Lavender shouted, sprinting down the hall towards her.

McGonagall noticed them for the first time, and went white. "Miss Brown? Corner! _Weasley?_"

"Harry!"

The names were thrown out in such disorder that everyone was confused. McGonagall must have been the most shocked though, since she hadn't seen these students for over a month.

They skidded to a halt, and for the first time, Ginny noticed what a strange sight was taking place here, on the lower floors. All around the hall, the suits of armor and the stone statues were bursting to life and scattering in all directions, Ginny presumed, to man and protect the entranceways. The shouts and screams that they had heard were partially coming from them, though the portraits were all in disarray as well. All this was topped by the ghosts whooshing past in worry and calling directions to one another. Ginny realized that the Heads of the Houses must have gotten together to make these preparations and were already informed that the school was under attack.

"Where're Ron and Hermione!" Ginny shouted, unnerved to see Harry alone. "And Neville?"

"Never mind about that—" he shouted, already passing them in a sprint, and calling over his shoulder. "Get to the upper levels! The Carrows have summoned the rest of the Death Eaters; they'll be here any second—"

As if on cue, there was a profound thudding noise—Ginny felt it more than she heard it. It felt as if a colossal boulder had landed on top of the school. The chandeliers overhead shuddered dangerously and fine streams of dust began to spiral their way down from the ceiling. Ginny looked up in horror. It had come from the Astronomy tower.

"THEY'RE HERE!" Flitwick squealed. "Come! It's time to do our duty to Hogwarts!"

Ginny had never seen the teachers like this. Their behavior was quite indistinguishable from the defense club members': inhuman, desperate, and shockingly brave. Their faces determined and set as if in stone, they dispersed to reinforce the entrances to the castle while Harry reached the corner from the direction that Ginny had come, shouting over his shoulder.

"GINNY! Find Madame Pomfrey! She'll help to evacuate everyone! The Death Eaters are coming down right now!" before disappearing.

Right. Find Madame Pomfrey and help evacuate students. Ginny couldn't help but shake her head. Harry really never changed. At least it was a plan, though, and Ginny had been hoping to get this done anyway.

All around them, more teachers were appearing to provide their reinforcements. They were waving their wands and shooting the strangest-looking spells that Ginny had ever seen: golden clouds, silvery mists, thick green vines…

"Get a move on!" Michael bellowed, grabbing Ginny's elbow, and the three of them started off at a sprint towards the hospital wing, though it seemed unbelievable that they now had to run back up all those stairs that they had just come down.

Ginny sped up the staircases tirelessly, the adrenaline not even allowing her to feel pain as she ran. She had no idea what had happened to the Carrows, the other members, anyone….

The noises changed as they rose, morphing from a frantically preparing atmosphere to one of outright dueling. Thumping, crashing noises, and the strangely metallic resonance of missed spells littered the air. As their feet landed on the fourth floor, the sight that met Ginny's eyes made her stop in her tracks.

It had started.

Dolohov, Mulciber, and a number of other Death Eaters that Ginny recognized from the Department of Mysteries last year, had flooded the fourth floor, and were battling it out with the younger club members. Cloaks were whooshing, spells were flying everywhere, bounded and rebounded, and part of the cackling wasn't even coming from the Death Eaters. Ginny looked up and saw that amid the colorful shots of magic, Peeves was soaring like a missile, a number of crackling smoke bombs in his arms that he kept dropping with loud CRACKS! on the feverish Death Eaters.

"Run through!" Lavender screamed, and bizarre though it seemed, the three of them had to duck and cover their heads, and bolt through the confusion.

From the corner of her eye, Ginny could see Terry and Zacharias battling with a Death Eater she had never seen. The masked man shot a killing curse at Terry, but Smith blocked it with Protego, sending the spell ricocheting into one of the torches on the walls instead, knocking it onto the floor where it caught alight on someone's hem of robes….

Ginny was amazed by how well everyone seemed to be holding up, all things considered. And there was something very touching about seeing them using the Shield Charm; the first one they had ever learned in the defense club...

"Stupefy!" Michael shot off the spell in all directions to the Death Eaters as they went, and when they finally made it to the other side of the hallway, Ginny straightened up, only to knock into someone student-sized this time.

"HEY!"

"Excuse me, Miss,"

Ginny looked up into the grinning face of George. Fred was at his shoulder, and the two of them were smirking as if nothing were wrong in the world. George actually looked vaguely self-satisfied.

"You two—"

"Relax," he ruffled her hair and sharply moved her out of the way to avoid a badly aimed hex. "I haven't got time to argue with you right now—"

"You guys got the message! Is the whole Order here?" she cried frantically.

Ginny's question was answered as she heard a loud _bang_ and the sound of something heavy falling down the steps at the end of the hallway. It turned out to be the limp body of Macnair, and behind it trooped Kingsley Shacklebolt, Tonks and Lupin, wearing the same determined and faraway expression as the teachers had.

Ginny was amazed, but there was no time to talk. From the same staircase at the end of the hall now flooded more Death Eaters than ever, making their ways down from higher levels. There were more than Ginny had ever seen or even knew existed, shooting curses from every angle, and it was all she, Lavender, and Michael could do to drop on the floor before they got hit.

"STUPEFY!" Ginny shouted, aiming at a Death Eater's legs as they rolled around. "Stupefy! George, did you have your DA coin with you the whole time?"

"Nearly burned a hole in my pants!" he shouted back, furiously dueling with a masked figure. "Really might want to consider changing the spell—"

The Death Eater's next curse missed George by inches, and Ginny gave up conversation. She and Michael and Lavender continued to crawl through the crowd, Stunning and cursing as they went. At the foot of the staircase, they sprang to their feet.

It was a stupid decision, since spells were flying everywhere, and it was all they could do to fend off the attacks without moving any farther. It soon became evident that there was no way all three of them could proceed at once. "We'll hold them off!" Michael and Lavender shouted. "Just go!"

Though it seemed like a horrible idea to leave her group mates alone, especially when it was against her _own_ advice, it did not seem like there was a choice, if she was to reach the hospital wing. Out of the corner of her eye, Ginny saw that Bellatrix Lestrange had joined the fight, and was battling with three of the Slytherins from the defense club, shrieking, "Filthy blood-traitors!" as she did so.

The sight of the woman sent chills up Ginny's spine. They were right. She had to go now; it would only take a moment, after all...

"Okay!" Ginny screamed. "Just stay here! I'll come back in a minute!"

She received no reply, but that was not wholly unexpected, and instead she turned to run up the final staircase. She was only one floor away, now. She just had to deliver the message to Pomfrey to send students out through the Room of Requirement, and that was all…just down this corridor...

"Here!"

Ginny burst into the hospital wing, miraculously silent and airy compared to the hysteria of the rest of the castle. Where was Madame Pomfrey? Ginny frowned, and crouched down, taking silent steps into the wing. Pomfrey didn't seem to be anywhere in sight. Was she down with the rest of the teachers by any chance? The windows were all open, letting a cold breeze into the room, and making the white linen curtains flap ominously against the west walls—

"CRU—

"_Expelliarmus!_"

They caught their spells almost at the same moment, but Ginny narrowly beat him to it. A Death Eater had been hiding in the shadows, but had burst out and attacked Ginny just as she passed the first row of beds. A light, skittering sound of wood on stone told Ginny that her spell had been successful, but the momentary satisfaction evaportated upon a new and disturbing sight—the Death Eater crouched next to a limp Madame Pomfrey.

"Drop your wand," he hissed in a thick voice from behind the mask. "Drop it now, or she dies!" A glint of silver caught the light near Madame Pomfrey's throat.

Though the man did not have his wand, Ginny could see he was perfectly capable of killing Pomfrey at this moment—that is, if she wasn't already dead. Ginny froze. This was exactly the sort of situation where she needed teammates. Had she been so foolish to leave them downstairs?

"You have to the count of three," the Death Eater reiterated, seeing that Ginny wasn't moving, but merely standing shell-shocked. She began to sweat, looking from the lifeless-looking body of Madame Pomfrey back to the Death Eater. Could she possibly risk the nurse's life for the purpose of one Death Eater…? How fast could she pull a curse before the man could attack?

"One…"

No. This couldn't be happening.

"Two…"

Not like _this_, after all the planning...

"Thr—"

"STUPEFY!"

The man crouched over Pomfrey froze like a statue. Ginny watched with her breath caught in her chest as he suddenly keeled over, slumping to the side of the nurse. Ginny craned her neck around frantically to see her savior and almost started choking in relief and surprise.

"_LUNA!"_

"I thought you might need some help here," Luna said in her serene voice, miraculously unchanged despite all these months she had been held captive. She gently let her wand hand fall to her side and shook her head gracefully. "It's so good to finally be out of the Malfoy mansion."

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a/n

oh my god...I never realized how painful it is to write fighting scenes! I have no idea how JK Rowling pulls them off for seven chapters at a time...


	19. The Room Reborn

The Hourglass: Chapter 19 (Final!)

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It turned out that Madame Pomfrey was not seriously harmed, but merely unconscious, and once they brought her around she was urgent to proceed in the evacuating of students despite her own disorientation. Luna had offered to stay and help as well, but the most unexpected arrival of Filch eliminated the need for that. Though Filch had spent the last six years irritating Ginny with his absurdly hostile and unfriendly nature, she was rather moved now by his willingness to help students escape the school in passels. The underclassmen were first taken to the grounds where they met Lupin, who then helped them to Disapparate.

This left Ginny and Luna free, and neither of them were eager to wait around for long. Ginny was personally itching to get back into the fight. Michael and Lavender may not be able to stay in one place for long, what with all the incoming attacks. They could be halfway across the school by now and it was a matter of utmost importance that she get back downstairs.

Once assured that Filch and Madame Pomfrey had things somewhat under control, they took off again for the lost battle below. As she ran, Ginny began to catch glimpses of familiar faces that she hadn't seen for a long while, some in over a year. Fred and George had done an excellent job publicizing this battle—that, or else the Order had somehow spread the word. No one stopped to say hello and catch up, naturally, but it was still quite emboldening to see that so many people had come back to fight for Harry. Ginny caught sight of the Patil twins, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, even Cho Chang, just to name a few—all of them, like her, sprinting for the madness. Ginny was surprised to find that the sight of Cho did not elicit any kind of emotional response in her, not the way it used to last year. She merely nodded her head in brief acknowledgement before continuing her way down the stairs.

When Ginny arrived on the fourth floor where she had left Lavender and Michael, she was surprised to find that the battle atmosphere there had thinned considerably. The Death Eaters, (or possibly the defense club members), had been pushed back into the twisting innards of the school; even the ghosts that had been aiding in the general chaos had disappeared, probably to help the greater majority. This left the hallway strangely quiet, even despite the several continuing duels. The fight had expanded.

Looking around frantically, she found that neither of her teammates were in sight, which left a hollow feeling in her stomach. It was unbelievable how bad her luck was sometimes. There was probably a good reason that Michael and Lavender had moved, or perhaps they were even forced to move, but how on earth was she possibly supposed to find them again in this mess?

Ginny looked around helplessly, hoping that she had only missed them, but it was futile: with the swarms in the halls reduced by at least half, every fighter stood out sharply and they certainly were not there.

Ginny's eyes were instead drawn magnetically to the sight of a long, lanky redhead fighting with a Death Eater near the windows. She had to shake her head to make sure she was seeing right. Even _Percy_ was back?

"Perce—" she started to call inexplicably, but stopped herself as there really could not be a worse time. The idea that even her older brother was back and on their side was really something, though!

Making her way towards Percy, Ginny fought through the lingering Death Eaters with deft steps and much ducking. She was hoping that she could be of some help to him, but she never made it there. The whispering noise of a swishing cloak preceded the actual occurrence. Ginny barely had time to elude the overhead curse before jumping behind a different dueling pair and spinning around to face her attacker.

"Going somewhere?"

It wouldn't be Bellatrix Lestrange without a snide comment of some sort and a dangerous sneer that promised more than it told. The tall woman stepped out into plain view and Ginny immediately felt stupid in her hiding position and stood up straight. Bellatrix's hair was all in disarray and she looked somewhat frazzled, as if she had already finished many duels, but her eyes were glowing with the same manic excitement of limitless energy that she always wore in a fight.

Ginny didn't know why Bellatrix was still here, when so many other and less important Death Eaters were disappearing from the hall, gravitating towards some point outside the school, but there was no time to dwell on this. It seemed that destiny was determined to hunt Ginny down, wherever she might go to escape it. She was not going to be the one to back down. Here and now, she had the chance to face fate head-on.

And so it didn't matter that her group mates were not here to back her up or that she was not with them to help them if they needed her. It did not matter that Ginny had been singled out for reasons unknown to fight this battle. At this moment, the only important thing was to end this, one way or the other. She would not be able to rest until this was over with. To run away and leave Bellatrix to a different opponent was more than she could bear.

Ginny stepped out into the path of Bellatrix and she smirked cruelly as they dueled, eyes alight with a strange emotion that was neither precisely described as determination or bloodlust. It was difficult to imagine what exactly Bellatrix was fighting for. Ginny's causes were pulsing in and out of her mind as she fought, but surely Bellatrix's must be skewed and unclear?

They kept battling, backing further and further in the west wall, and despite her high energy level, Ginny could feel herself falling back. Bellatrix fought as if she had several pairs of hands that could shoot off more curses than Ginny could handle. Percy was fading into the distance and disappeared around the corner before she could so much as hail him. Her moment of averting her eyes was paid for dearly, nonetheless. Bellatrix's next spell missed her by a matter of inches; so close that Ginny could feel the hot beam grazing against her robes; that beam that had killed Harry's parents…Cedric Diggory…Moody…

A huge explosion rocked the very floor on which they stood, causing both of them to miss their aims. Despite the fact that neither was prone to distraction, both Ginny and Bellatrix looked about momentarily. The other fighters on the floor were clearly confused as well; some were staring in perplexity at a point on the ceiling. Ginny followed their gaze and saw it: a fine crack, thin as a hair but just as supple, was creeping across the ceiling, destined for the west wall where Bellatrix and Ginny stood. They both dove out of the way, and not a minute too soon. Seconds after hurrying out of the damaged zone, a horrible crunching noise signaled that about half of the ceiling near the wall had come loose. In a matter of seconds, it crumpled, caving in completely to the hallway below. Stone and powdery gray dust crashed to the floor, splitting and spraying crumbs of rock and plaster in every direction.

Coughing, sputtering, and glancing in awe through the enormous, newly-created hole in the ceiling, Ginny found that she could now see into the upper floors: it looked like a giant bite had been taken out of the side of the castle on the fifth floor.

It was a horrifying sight, and the screams and crying of people on the upper floors instantly met her ears, but Ginny refused to give in and look. No matter what, she had to maintain her focus for right now. Bellatrix certainly recovered quickly, and would try to use the momentary confusion to get the better of Ginny.

It was unclear who had set off the explosion, but at least there was one favorable consequence: Bellatrix Lestrange had been set off her footing. Both of them fought from positions closer to the ground now, doubling back to avoid the gusts of frigid night air that now rushed into the destroyed castle in huge gulps. Ginny squinted as the cold air made her eyes water, blurring her vision.

Then abruptly, Bellatrix slashed her wand without saying a word, and Ginny felt something scalding hot encircle her ankle briefly, hotter than flames, and it brought her to her knees. The pain was unbelievable; it felt like her entire leg had been shattered from the inside. It was only through sheer willpower that Ginny managed to force herself back to her feet, causing Bellatrix to raise an eyebrow: clearly, she was coldly impressed despite herself. However, Ginny was now at even more of a disadvantage than before and was rapidly being driven back into the entrance tower with every stroke of their wands. However hateful to admit it, Bellatrix was simply a superb dueler. She had ample experience fighting off multiple Aurors who were trying to kill her at once: one grade-school student was nothing at all….

_I need help…._

The realization came to Ginny rather suddenly, but very clearly. At this rate, she had no other options. Ginny needed someone with her right now, or this was going to end very soon, and not the way that she had hoped for. It wasn't right for her to die now, expire on her own club and family now. She needed someone here to help her.

It was not a rational behavior. She didn't tell her eyes to do it. But at that moment, they took over as if they had minds of their own and performed the action independent of her will.

Ginny's eyes snapped shut.

She could hear Bellatrix screaming in mirth, perhaps at Ginny's stupidity, but she didn't care. She was only vaguely aware of what was happening, because something new, a stronger, incredibly surreal awareness was taking over. The sound of Bellatrix's laughter gradually faded away, like a radio with its volume knob being turned down. Then the laughter flickered and vanished completely, and instead of sensing the things around her, Ginny found herself in the most pure and deep state of concentration at performing Legilimency that she had ever been in. Without her having planned it, Blaise's face swam into her mind's eye and she found herself focusing all her powers on seeing into his mind. Trying to send him a message, communicate something to him…

_I need help. See Bellatrix? Come here. Come help me…_

Ginny silently prayed, her body still dueling even while her mind concentrated on this wish.

In the back of this meditative state, a small voice in Ginny's mind doubted that this was ever going to work. She could barely do Legilimency _with_ eye contact, let alone _without _it…but she couldn't stop herself from trying, nonetheless.

"Why, you…!"

The volume started to return and the first thing Ginny heard was that Bellatrix's laughter had turned to shouting. The Death Eater was evidently aggravated by this strange change in situation and wanted Ginny back in the moment.

It was hopeless. In a battle like this, there was no way Ginny could win. It was only a matter of time. Ginny's eyes snapped open at the sound of Percy's voice: he was bellowing from the level above, shouting in terrible pain of some sort. She couldn't imagine, didn't _want_ to imagine what it was that was making him scream like that, but Bellatrix took full advantage of Ginny's moment of distraction to shoot the very last thing that Ginny had been expecting. And it was only Harry's trademark: the disarming spell.

Ginny was thrown back, wandless, and found Bellatrix's wand pointed directly at her chest. Trapped.

Pleased to find that her prey had reawakened, Bellatrix smiled a cruel smirk that brightened her skeletal, but strangely beautiful, face. She took an enjoyment in fighting that was clearly far beyond the call of duty.

Ginny took an involuntary step back, stumbling a little on the rubble, and Bellatrix stepped forward, enjoying Ginny's helplessness.

"And now," she said softly, raising her wand. Ginny wasn't expecting much of a speech. She wasn't important enough for that.

"We finish the blood traitors," was all Bellatrix said, in a strangely soft voice. It was a much milder jibe than Ginny had been expecting.

There wasn't much going through Ginny's mind as Bellatrix raised her wand. Not the supposed "flashing" of life before her eyes, nor a sudden flood of regrets and memories. There was a certain hollowness, a feeling of cool surrender to some unknown, but not something that she would describe strictly as fear. She supposed it was a good thing, to be dying without fear.

It did seem, however, that Bellatrix was moving in slow motion as she directed the wand. Ginny found herself screwing up her eyes, though she knew it would offer no protection against whatever was to come next. She didn't hear it, but saw Bellatrix's lips starting to move as they formed the words of the curse…

And then the green light flashed before her and bounced back, as if deflected by an enormous, invisible wall. Ginny looked around in confusion to see who had cast the shielding charm and the sound around her suddenly came back as sharp and clear as before. Fighting alongside her as if he had never left was Blaise.

"Blaise—" her voice was contorted with shock. "I—what—

_How had he known? _

Blaise, of course, did not bother to answer any sort of question, as he shouldn't, and continued to fight without taking much note of Ginny, who was standing there rather pointlessly without her wand.

"Ha! Blood traitor!" Bellatrix's lip curled in, even more than usual, at the sight of the green and silver crest upon Blaise's robes. "You're worse than the rest of them; a filthy shame on your own name—"

Blaise did not reply, but his brow darkened a little at the jibe and he continued to duel. Ginny snapped back to reality, though it was difficult to leave that dazed state so suddenly, and saw her wand lying some twenty feet away on the floor. She stretched out her hand and desperately thought _Accio!_ and was surprised to see it soar directly into her proffered hand.

Together, they began to fight Bellatrix, and Ginny was astonished by their combined ability against a Death Eater's prowess. It felt as though they had fought together on many other occasions, and that this was just another instance. Bellatrix, though masterfully avoiding their dual attacks, was definitely slowing down now, meaning, to Ginny's satisfaction, that she was getting overwhelmed.

Ginny still had no idea where Blaise had come from, or how he had known that she needed help, but there was no time to worry about it. Slowly but surely, with Blaise taking over the offensive and Ginny as a defender flicking curses at the Death Eater's extremeties, they managed to drive Bellatrix backwards over the front that she had won forward until they eventually stood near the gaping hole in the side of Hogwarts. Bellatrix twirled faster than Ginny had ever seen anyone move to catch each and every one of their attacks, but she was clearly not happy with the way things were going. With a snarl and an almost inhuman deftness, Bellatrix shot a wild curse that emitted with a huge bang straight at Ginny, and almost instantly, Blaise retaliated with a furious slash of a silent spell.

Bellatrix was hit. The spell caught her straight in the chest. Ginny didn't know what type it was, for it clearly did not kill her, but the impact was profound. The force of it knocked her cleanly backwards, and as she floundered about for balance, she forgot that she was standing in front of the hole in the wall, and tripped. Ginny watched in strange fascination as Bellatrix Lestrange flailed and in a matter of seconds, fell off the fourth story of Hogwarts.

She didn't go quietly, however. Milliseconds before her body disappeared from view completely, she shot a final curse—or what looked like a curse. It was more like a stream of purple flames that caught Blaise off-guard, slashing him sharply from the collar diagonally down to the waist.

He crumpled down to the floor as Bellatrix disappeared from view, and Ginny's eyes widened in horror when he didn't spring back up again immediately.

"_Blaise!_" she shrieked, not knowing where this bubbling, overwhelming panic was coming from; he should not be seriously hurt. She bolted to his side as he stirred, and pulled his shoulder to turn him over.

"How…oh, _damn_," she whispered, taking in the sight. Bellatrix had gone down, but not without a fight. There was some sort of wound in his side—a deep gash that was quickly soaking through the side of his robes. Yet it was clearly magical, and not something that could be solved with a wave of the wand and a melding spell. What was extraordinary was that the gash itself did not seem to be the source of his pain. He was wincing and holding his chest, making Ginny suspect that there was some sort of internal damage.

She gingerly touched his shoulder and he flinched as though she had punched him. There was definitely more damage than met the eye.

"Blaise…how did you know?" the words escaped from her mouth in a hushed tone before she could stop them, even though she knew that now was a most incredibly inappropriate moment.

He didn't seem to take much notice of their respective situations, though. He merely turned to face her with a twisted expression. "I don't know," he mumbled, as if in defeated admonition. "It was just in my head, I didn't do anything…" his voice got soft and he trailed off, redoubling Ginny's nervous suspicions.

They needed help, now. Someone should take Blaise to the hospital wing, and she, Ginny, should get back into the fight. But as Ginny looked around, she saw that they were nearly alone in the hall by now. A few stragglers were sprinting at the end, and Ginny caught sight of some defense club members, but they were all moving towards some external point that Ginny could not see.

"Where're they all going?" she wondered aloud in confusion.

"Potter…" Blaise muttered, trying to sit up, but only making it about halfway. "He's back. We thought he was dead…"

"Shh," she tried to push him back down. "Stop moving."

"They're out in front of the school," Blaise continued, despite her admonition. "I was there, too…but then you…"

He looked at her curiously and Ginny found herself at a loss also, because she didn't know what she had done. Well, she knew what she had been _trying_ to do, but she hadn't believed that it had actually _worked_… The idea that it might have was most peculiar.

"Just go out to the battle," Blaise voice was getting quieter by the moment. "I'm not too bad."

If Blaise's condition was "not too bad", Ginny cringed to think what would qualify as "terrible". As if on cue of saying it, Blaise's eyes scrunched up and he slowly slumped down forward. Passed out.

Ginny spent a long moment in shock staring at the limp form of the person who had just saved her life. Again. Her eyes began to water again, and she couldn't blame it on the cold air anymore. It was now or never.

She could go out to the front of the school with everyone else and finish this battle once and for all and maybe save many lives. Or she could stay here and save Blaise. Once these options were laid out in her mind, the choice was so staggeringly obvious that it almost made her ashamed.

She unsteadily got to her feet and cast Wingardium Leviosa with a shaking voice. It was probably better that Blaise wasn't awake for this, for she could imagine him going brusque on her and refusing to be carried, but obviously there was no way that she could physically pick him up and she couldn't—_wouldn't_—to leave him here. She owed him at least this, among other things.

Ginny had never sprinted as fast as she did on that final trip to the hospital wing. The normal walk of five minutes was shortened to a mere forty seconds, even though she was running nearly blind with the tears. It was such a state of pure, selfish panic as she hurried him up the stairs on an invisible stretcher. She found that she really didn't care what was going on in front of the school right now, even though that was what she had spent the year fighting for. All that mattered was that Blaise got care immediately. If he was permanently injured because of this or…or….

She wouldn't even let herself think the other word, because she didn't know what she would do if that came true.

When they arrived, Ginny practically seized Madame Pomfrey and dragged her over to Blaise's side for immediate appraisal and one look at the nurse's face was enough to set all her folded worries alight again.

Ginny could not leave the hospital wing all throughout the time in which Madame Pomfrey wrenched though the medicine cabinets for bottled potions and muttered soft spells as she waved her wand over Blaise. Ginny knew there was fighting going on outside, but as long as Blaise remained inert and looking as if he might die, she was rooted to the spot. If Blaise had taken her place in destiny, it would be more than she could bear. She kneeled next to his form once Madame Pomfrey had proclaimed him in stable condition, holding onto his hand for some length of time that she could not remember. When the tears had dried up on her face and Madame Pomfrey informed her that Blaise needed rest before he would come to, she managed to force herself to leave the room, though it felt all wrong and painful.

It was time at last that she could go to find Harry and the others, even if every step she put between herself and the passed-out Blaise made her feel cold and empty. In contrast to the journey to the hospital wing, the walk back to the front of the school seemed to take years. She took it at a funeral march, with her eyes on the ground so she would not have to see any more bodies, or any more relics of the destroyed castle on the floor. The cold air seeped in from all sides now, making Ginny sure that either ghosts were floating past, or that the castle was now exposed to open air, but still she did not raise her eyes.

Ginny stumbled into the main landing and headed to the front doors, with only half a mind for what she was doing, pulling out her wand and thinking that she would instantly kill the next opponent who came into her path.

But no opponents came.

As Ginny floundered towards the front of the school to go out, people were coming back in, but they were not enemies.

Ginny slowed and eventually stopped, watching them go past, their heads bowed and silent. No one spoke to her; no one said anything. Even without words, however, the message was communicated. Realization dawned upon Ginny.

They had won…but it wasn't a joyous victory. Ginny was somewhat surprised to see that this hadn't played at all like it had in her mind. Every face that returned was sober, quiet. They moved in hoards like ghosts of victors, aimless now that the battle was over. And Ginny watched them go with the strangest sensation that she was dreaming.

XxX

The body of Voldemort in a crumpled pile—Harry nowhere in sight—these were visions that did not seem possible in any reality, with or without the time turner. Ginny followed the quiet hoards to the Great Hall. It seemed that, like her, most of them were in a quiet state of shock from the victory rather than an uproarious state.

Back in the hall, it started to make sense why: despite the bodies of the Death Eaters that littered the outside of the castle, people were now laying out their own dead on the empty floors of the Hall. Ginny's eyes flickered across the piles…faces she had known, faces she hadn't known. The strange thought that someone could live and die for a cause without anyone knowing your name…

She caught sight of her own mother crying on the other side of the room and slowly shuffled towards her, even though she wasn't sure that she wanted to see what it was she was crying over. On the floor was Fred, his face relaxed but contented, as if he were having a mildly pleasant dream. Had this been what Percy had been screaming about?

Ginny stared at the form of her brother for over ten minutes, letting the tears fall freely, and not bothering to even wipe them or sniffle or change position to something more comfortable. Further on, lay Tonks and Lupin side by side, their faces quiet and sober and comfortable together in a way they had never seemed in life. Ginny's heart wrenched at the thought of their young orphaned child away somewhere. The new Harry. Victim of the same evil wizard; the same old destruction and problems.

More people pressed into the hall, the new mourners with their bodies, and Ginny found herself slowly backing away and heading for the door. It was all too much right now. She needed alone time, without even her family or friends.

The halls outside were silent now. Ginny walked with her head down, barely aware of where her feet were taking her. It was over now, and they were safe. So why did it all feel so bitter anyway? As if they had lost even after winning. She supposed it was partly that everything felt so stupid in retrospect. Stupid and senseless. Did it make any sense that so many people had suffered and died, and for what? So that injustice wouldn't take over like it _shouldn't in the first place_.

Ginny kept putting one foot in front of the other until the hushed murmurings coming from the Great Hall ceased completely to meet her ears. Up the stairs. Walking up that spiral of stone, where lives had passed before and after her.

She found herself on the seventh floor before she became aware that her body was seeking out the Room of Requirement. It was the last safe haven. The last place she had been when everything still made sense. Now Ginny just wanted a quiet place to lie down and be alone.

Ginny stopped when she raised her eyes and saw a strange sight in front of the Room of Requirement. The door to the room, for the first time Ginny had ever seen it as such, was hanging open. Moreover, she was not alone in the hallway. Standing in front of the open door and looking in with a vacant expression was Harry.

He half-glanced her way as she approached, but did not much change expression. She stepped up to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. Together, they peered inside the room and Ginny realized why he was standing outside.

The Room of Requirement had been destroyed.

Although Ginny felt too numb to register much shock, she simply stood next to Harry with a sort of polite puzzlement. The room looked ordinary in size, as though it had grown tired of all the requests made of it and was simply back to its true form: a small, unimpressive abode, little bigger than a broom closet. Everything inside the room was black, from the burned-to-a-crisp furniture to the powdery carpet and the soot-smeared walls. A sharp, putrid smell of destruction assaulted their nostrils as they watched, and Ginny observed that the piles of ash about the floor were emitting faint clouds of dust and worn out smoke, giving the room a foggy, mysterious look.

"…What happened?" Ginny asked finally, unable to tear her eyes from the utter destruction in their wake.

"Fiendfyre." Harry replied, in the same, non-expressive voice.

They lapsed into silence once more, and Harry did not explain further, so Ginny did not press the matter. Perhaps it was something he wanted to forget as quickly as possible.

Ginny felt a surge of affection as she looked around the beaten room; it was so much like watching an old friend on their deathbed. The destruction of cursed fire could not be repaired, ever. Nothing in here would ever exist again, from the tables, the hammocks, the secrets, the bookshelves….even….

Ginny let her mind slide to that thing she had been trying to avoid. The hourglass. It was gone now, forever. Burned away with the rest of the bookshelf. She had been wondering at times how it was possible for an object as magically powerful as that to ever reach the end of its life, but here was the evidence right before her. Something beautiful and pure destroyed by the utter stupidity of humans…

They could never go back now, and change the past or future. Whatever was here right now was here to stay and there were only the choices in front of them.

"It's too bad," said Harry finally broke the silence, after they had stood together for nearly fifteen minutes. "It shouldn't have happened."

"None of this should have," Ginny reminded him. He looked at her, and she saw that he looked deeply tired, not physically, but similar to the way the older Blaise had looked. His eyes were flickering like dying embers in a face framed in dirt and matted hair.

"I'm not sure," he said slowly. "I mean…that none of it should have happened."

She frowned a little and looked at him curiously.

"I think maybe it was supposed to," Harry explained quietly, in the same slow voice. "Like somehow everything's gone according to plan."

"Whose plan?" she asked dryly.

He shrugged. "That's not the point."

He was right. It didn't matter whose plan it was. It wasn't theirs, but it might have been someone's, somewhere. Their lives were nothing more than series of events that they tried to control or alter, but never really could, perhaps. Ginny didn't know. And she was too tired to care.

She hadn't planned many events of this year, but it had all happened, and perhaps for the better. Was finding the hourglass and changing their fate part of their fate? Who knew?

Ginny thought back to Blaise, probably still unconcious in the hospital wing. Meeting him, joining with him…_loving_ him? It still felt awkward to use that word. Maybe that was all a bizarre turn of chance, especially considering that she had been so set on Harry for the past few years.

"I don't know," she said. "There might be a plan and there might not be, but that doesn't matter. There's only circumstance that matters."

He glanced at her as if she had confessed her feelings about their relationship that had been left hanging. Ginny swallowed, wondering if she should just finish this now and end all the ambiguity and awkwardness. It would feel weird to say this, but at the same time, she knew it was the truth.

"I still love you. Just…not how I should," she said quietly. "It's not like everything can just pick up where it left off. So much has changed this year Harry, you're…you're different. I'm different. And….I don't want to change back."

That was the truth of it. She hoped these words didn't sound as bitter to him as they did to her.

Harry only nodded absentmindedly in response. Ginny had the feeling that not much of this was registering to him right now. He had gone through too much in the past few hours.

Ginny looked at Harry and touched his arm. "You look really tired. You should get some sleep."

He nodded again. "I thought this might happen."

The words sounded so hollow that Ginny was assaulted by the dual urge to hit him and to hug him. "I'm sorry, Harry."

A faint smile came onto his face. "Don't be. I've already had enough trouble for a lifetime."

That was certainly true enough. He didn't deserve any more pain. But it still didn't change the circumstances. She took a breath. "Goodbye, then."

He looked at her strangely as she backed away down the corridor, away from his world and into someone else's life.

"…bye."

**XxX**

**_Two days later_**

The hospital wing door was open so Ginny walked in without knocking. It now resembled its old state quite a bit, but on closer inspection, evidence of the battle was still apparent under the clean up. The beds were arranged in their usual line and the floors swept and cleaned, but the windows were still missing glass from where they had been shot out with spells. The floor had several new cracks and slivers, adding to the castle's sense of age.

These were minor details, however. Given a few more days, the hospital wing could be fixed completely and the small signs of destruction removed. Ginny passed Neville on her way to the farthest bed from the door. She smiled a little at the look he shot her: Neville had been thoroughly disappointed and a little annoyed when he learned that Ginny had not witnessed him killing Nagini.

"Feeling better?" she asked as she passed.

"Yeah," he said, almost resentfully, "No thanks to you." She shook her head, amused despite the fact that it wasn't really funny. The shocks of the night and the battle had diluted themselves over the last two days and this was her third time visiting the wing, so all did not seem as serious as it had a few days ago.

She approached the person she had come to see and sat down on the edge of his bed. Blaise looked up as she did so.

"So. We did it," she said comfortably, leaning against the back bedpost.

"Yeah," the tone sounded bland.

For the first time since Ginny had known him, Blaise looked awkward and uncomfortable with the situation at hand. It seemed like he didn't know what to say. Rather out of character and quite endearing, Ginny found. She liked learning these new little details about Blaise.

"Are you healing alright?" she asked.

He glanced at his side, which was still coated in inches of bandages, and shrugged. "Madame Pomfrey fixed it in about two minutes, but I'm still not allowed to walk around. The bandages come off in two more days."

"Not too bad then," Ginny said conversationally, enjoying the irony of the statement. "We did surprisingly well, I think. I mean, all things considered."

He raised his eyebrow. "I'd say 'damn well'," he replied.

"Right. I was trying to be modest," she said with a smile. "But seriously," she added. "I know I already told you this, but thanks…for saving me."

She had to control herself from saying "again". It would lead to complicated questions.

He looked down. At this point, it was pretty clear what Blaise's feelings towards Ginny were and that she reciprocated them. The visits immediately following his hospitalization in the last few days had been a testament to that. Yet, he still seemed shy about it.

"Blaise…there's something I've been wondering," she said hesitantly. "How _did_ you know that I needed help that night?"

He frowned and didn't reply for a while, just looked out the window. "I know you don't believe me, but I honestly don't know," he said at last. "I didn't _know_. It was just like…it came into my head. Like I suddenly saw into your mind."

Her smile increased. Inexplicably, she remembered earlier in the year when she and Blaise had taken a walk around the lake to talk about defense club lessons. It was just as she had thought.

"Blaise…"

"What?" he looked in mild inquiry at her quietly gleeful look.

"You did Legilimency," she said triumphantly.

There was a long pause in which these words settled it. Ginny was smiling in satisfaction, while Blaise looked a bit skeptical. "How do you know?" he asked.

"Because that was what I was aiming for. I was trying to do…reverse Occlumency, I guess. I don't know, it was intense."

She smirked at his continued look of confusion. "First time you managed it, too. I'm impressed that you could do it under so much pressure."

His brow immediately furrowed. "I could do it on other people!"he said, a little hotly.

"Yeah, sure…" she conceded, deciding not to press his pride, at least not yet. "First time on me, though."

There was no logical argument to this point, so he kept quiet, though she could tell he was annoyed.

"Is Harry still here?" he asked after a while.

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Why do you care?"

He looked away, and she smiled.

"You act weird around him," Ginny said honestly, deciding to go for it. "Why's that?"

For the first time, it looked like Blaise was at a loss for words. "…I don't act weird around him," he said finally.

She smiled, even allowing a smirk-ish quality to enter her face. "Yeah, you do. You get all quiet and non-bossy." She paused, wondering how far would be too far. "…are you jealous or something?" she asked.

He looked at her sharply. "He's your ex-boyfriend, Ginny. It's a little awkward, that's all," he said flatly.

She shrugged, trying to suppress the tugging at the corner of her lips. "You never seemed to have a problem with Michael," she pointed out.

"Michael?" Blaise's expression went from an awkward admission to surprise. His eyes narrowed and then widened and Ginny realized that she had made a mistake. He hadn't known about Michael.

"No," he began, his eyebrows furrowing incredulously. "You—"

Fortunately, at that moment, Luna entered the ward to see Neville and Ginny jumped on the excuse to get to her feet and go meet her.

"Oh, Luna you're back!" Ginny shouted as loudly over Blaise's voice as she could manage, avoiding Blaise's eye and hastening over to talk to her. "Sorry I missed you this morning! Are you feeling alright?"

"Hey, wait a minute! What was that about Michael?_"_ Blaise called incredulously after her as Ginny sped to the other side of the room.

* * *

a/n

It's oooovvvveeeerrrrr! I can't believe I actually finished it! I hope that this ending wasn't disappointing to you; I know there's no hardcore Blaise/Ginny action but that's just not my style and I think this ending fits, somehow.

This is the final chapter; however, I will be following up with a small chapter of** notes and commentaries on The Hourglass** that you can look at if you're interested.

**Thank you so much for reading!** If you've been following this story for a while, this is **your last chance to let me know what you thought of it**, and review what you liked and didn't like overall! I hope to hear from many of my readers!


	20. Notes

_**Notes on The Hourglass**_

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This story was initially published: September 12, 2009 and finished September 26, 2010. I have been writing it for one year and two weeks. I can't believe it's finally finished—my first complete story! And my oldest one…

**Introduction:**

I thought of the idea for The Hourglass long before I started writing it—probably I first decided that I wanted to take on a multi-chapter Harry Potter adventure story sometime in the winter of 2008. I had a vague idea that I wanted it to be suspenseful, adventurous, romantic, and unconventional. I've never been a fan of common pairings, and I knew I wanted Ginny as a main character, since she's one of my favorites from the series (incidentally, I thought she was really poorly casted in the movies. But that's off topic :D)

**Plot:**

I think the idea took off after I watched the new Star Trek movie in May 2009. I thought the movie was reasonably good, but my favorite part that I wished they had expanded upon more was when Kirk gets stranded in that weird alternate universe and meets an older version of Spock. I _loved _the idea of meeting someone who was to be your friend in the future. All over the summer, I thought about this idea, and the first chapter that I drafted, as I've told you before, was chapter 16 in which Ginny finds out that she's dead in the future. All I knew was that I wanted a story that would be a strange time-travel romance with a twist revealed late in the story.

**Characters/Pairing:**

I really don't know where the pairing Blaise/Ginny came from. I'm not a super fan of it, but I just thought that for the plot of this story, which was sort of dark and suspenseful, it would be better not to use something common like Harry/Ginny. I somehow felt that Blaise and Ginny were a good match since Blaise's blasé attitude fits really well with Ginny's vivacity and wit. Blaise is drawn to Ginny's strength of character, ambition, and talent. Ginny takes much longer to warm up to Blaise, eventually accepting his single-mindedness and fortitude.

**Organization:**

I don't know if you realized this at any point while reading the story, but I planned _very little_ of this story prior to writing it. When I wrote the first chapter, I only had an _extremely vague_ idea of what was to happen before Ginny met Blaise in the future for the first time. About 80 percent of this story was complete improvisation as I wrote. I'm pretty good at improvisation however, so once I come up with an idea, I can put in motifs quite easily, such as the recurring thing with Occlumency.

Some parts, of course, were planned from the beginning. I had to know all the twists of the story so that I could properly foreshadow them, such as Ginny's death and the outcome of the Battle of Hogwarts. However, some details like the disappearances of Nott and Luna, and the role of the Slytherins, I didn't think of until I was there in the chapter, writing it.

**Motif of Occlumency:**

I liked the idea of Occlumency and Legilimency as a centerpiece of Ginny and Blaise's relationship. Although Ginny and Blaise offset each other in many ways, they also share similarities, such as the desire for greater power and a certain deep-set arrogance since they are both talented. Since their relationship is so troubled initially, full of pride and prejudice (hehe), performing Occlumency was a good way for them to learn about one another and about themselves. I liked how the story sort of wrapped around at the end and that they were able to share thoughts in order to win the fight with Bellatrix: it just shows how much their relationship had progressed.

The inclusion of the Slytherins and the diversity of the defense club was a parallel to Blaise and Ginny's relationship. It's literally a coming together of Gryffindor and Slytherin in a setting of desperation.

**Themes:**

A major theme of this story is how nothing is ever really planned out in life: everything exists only as far as in the choices we make. Circumstance is everything. Some things matter because they are important, while some things only matter because they are _there._ You can't help who you meet in your life, or who happens to be in the right place at the right time. Love is based off of coincidence more than off compatibility.

**Other Things:**

What I find interesting about The Hourglass is how it's actually two stories: one story is of the young Blaise and Ginny, in their year at Hogwarts, trying to learn to accept each other and teach their club. This story moves forward chronologically. The other story is of a dystopic future with a lonely Blaise where Ginny learns more about the nature of courage and circumstance. This story moves backwards. The two stories collide at the Battle of Hogwarts, which is clearly a very confusing and bittersweet experience for Ginny. It addresses issues of how nothing seems worth dying for in the end.

I ended off this story with a lighthearted scene on purpose. Blaise and Ginny are clearly united at the end, but it's not perfectly clear where they will go from there. The ambiguity is sort of nice, in my opinion. While there have been plenty of fights and troubling aspects to their relationship throughout the year, the story leaves off with a bit of humor, as if to soothe over everything and say, 'it doesn't matter after all'.

**Relationship to Canon: **

Obviously, this story is very AU; however, I periodically attempted to add in elements that corresponded to the canon so that the story would be more believable. The parts with stealing the sword of Griffindor, hiding out in the Room of Requirement, and being forced to perform Unforgivable Curses in class are directly fro the canon, which gives the story a more realistic feel. Obviously, however, many things have been changed and the new DA is nothing like the old one. I personally like mine better. :)

**Characterization:**

I tried to keep all characters as in-character as possible, because OOC ness really bothers me. I don't know how well I did on this account, but I think it came out fairly well.

Err….what else….?

I would like to thank everyone who kept up with this story in the good times (lots of updates) and…not as good times. In some chapters, there was a gap several months, but I was pleased to find that people would still give the story a chance.

**The Hourglass:**

A physical symbol of the ambiguity of life. Ginny can change circumstances, but it often feels as though things are meant to be and happen by chance. I really liked that the Room of Requirement burns at the end of the canon, because it sort of puts an end to all the skulking around of the story. The hourglass is also gone. What I really like is that it's unclear whether the hourglass turned when the Room of Requirement burned down. It's a bit like the ending of Inception: we're left wondering if Ginny is living in a normal reality, or only in some dimension of it.

**So, Finally: **

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for kindly ignoring it when I use annoying clichés.

Thanks for putting up with my dorky hourglass at the beginning of every chapter.

Thanks for being awesome enough to like this story!

I'll add more notes if I think of them later….


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